The Beauty of Death
by fersuremaybefersurenot98
Summary: Percy's life has fallen apart. Sally is dead, he's scared and lonely, and hellish creatures lurk around every corner. He needs a new family, will he find a father in Hades? The Big Three have always had trust issues...what will this mean for their future? UNDER TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: An Angel from Hell**

**Warning:** **Read the Rating, this story WILL take a turn for "M" chapters in the future, and its slash, as in male/male, so you've been warned people.**

**AN:** _**PEOPLE OF FANFICTION!**_ **I had to re-post this, and delete the other one, because I made too many mistakes, and I wasn't satisfied with the chapters, and I accidentally deleted the story and, and, and…*passes out* SO! If you want your reviews to be heard, you're going to have to re-review O.0. Sorry about the inconvenience!**

**This story was inspired by the story "Daddy Hades" by ncalkins, some similarities my occur XP. This chapter doesn't have much…nope, any dialogue; it mostly just explains how things are going to be with this story. BTW, this is my first….second…**_**posted**_** story! ^_^**

Percy ran down the dark alleys of Los Angeles California, and stopped for a rest. He sat on the cold cement next to a dumpster, and tried to get his breathing under control. He had just fought off a monster, a particularly hideous one, and he was near passing out of fear and exhaustion. It was more than most six year olds can handle. Why was he alone, at the mercy of monsters, you might ask?

See, Percy wasn't any ordinary six year old. He was a demigod, which meant monsters were waiting around every corner for him. His mom was Sally Jackson, and she was now dead, murdered in cold blood by her husband, Percy's stepdad. He ran away when he saw her body lying in the hallway, bloody and lifeless, and dead in their apartment in Bakersfield. Gabe Ugliano, the man who had killed her, had blood on his hands, and on the baseball bat next to him, and was lying on the couch, passed out.

Now, Percy was alone in the streets of Los Angeles, homeless, filthy beyond recognition, and scared. Indeed, he had run all the way from Bakersfield to Los Angeles in three weeks. He wouldn't have made it if not for the pretty women and girls who often came out of the trees to feed him, clean him, hide him, and tend to his wounds.

When he said, came out of the trees, he meant it literally. They melted from the trees themselves, and sometimes pulled him up into the safety of their highest branches, protecting him until the monsters had gone away. They fed him by plucking the apples, berries, tomatoes, carrots, and other fruits and other vegetables and fruits from their individual branches and plants. They washed him in the nearby rivers or parts of ocean. All they would need to do was sing, Ancient Greek songs Percy somehow understood, and the scratches and bruises would close and fade from his skin.

But now, there were no trees, bushes, flowers, or even blades of grass to be found. There were no lovely, caring, green-eyed women, only concrete pavement, black tar, and artificial stone. He was alone, and he was in danger. It was nearing sunset, the nightmarish creature would be back soon, and he would be as good as dead.

He was dressed in camouflage pants, sneakers with no socks, and a ratty, torn, stained grey shirt. He carried a baseball bat with him, which he used to kill monsters with, his weapon of choice for that moment. It was the weapon used to beat the life out of his beautiful mother, and now he was beating the life out of anything that tried to hurt him.

He was cold, tired, hungry, lonely, and scared of the dark. He was cold, tired, hungry, lonely, and scared of the dark, but he had courage. He had courage, but he was a little boy, a child, and his body could only take so much more…..

He knew couldn't fight much longer.

Meanwhile…..

Hecate wasn't an evil deity, at least not entirely. She was as good as she was evil, and right now, she was wandering the streets of Los Angeles with her beloved hounds.

She was the goddess of magic, crossroads, hounds, darkness, and the moon, like Artemis. She was the Queen of witches and an underworld goddess. She was the Mother, Maiden and Crone, the triple goddess. Her home was in the underworld, but at night she wandered the earth with her dogs, observing as she went.

She sensed a power in a nearby alley, something…stronger than a human, but not a monster or another creature….it was a half-blood, she decided. She heard a whimper… a ghoulish laugh…a scream next. Her motherly side took over and she hurried to see what was going on.

A _Lamia_, a vampiric demon that preys on children, was lurking over a child. He looked like life had beaten him down pretty hard, and he looked physically beaten too. He looked afraid and hopeless, but brave nonetheless. He was ready to face death.

_So young…so much potential_, Hecate thought, and thrust out her hand. Before the demon could turn, it exploded into dust. In a daze, Percy thought it must have been an angel that saved him from the monsters, only an angel would protect him…only an angel would be so kind, and radiate such power.

Percy only caught a glimpse of his savior; a middle aged woman, beautiful, with brown-grey hair, fair skin, brown eyes, a motherly smile in a purple cloak. She held a torch lit with purple fire, and behind her, several bloodhounds flanked her. Then she was engulfed in a column of blue flames, and was no more.

**Two weeks later….**

Percy sat at the banks of a pond, next to a black haired girl, about the age of fourteen. She sang a song about someone named Apollo as she washed his cuts clean. The bruises melted away as the water washed over him, the cuts closed, and he felt better in the coolness of the river.

The women and girls, the nature spirits as Percy thought them to be, were sort of mysterious, they didn't really say much, except singing and murmuring comforting words to Percy if he cried, or told him funny stories to cheer him up. They also seemed to know about him, and he would see them sticking their heads out of the trees as he walked by, keeping an eye on him. He figured they must talk to each other.

**That night…**

He gazed at the stars from his bed of leaves and grass (which were made comfortable for him by the nature spirits) and snuggled closer to the sleeping girl next to him. His eyelids grew heavy, and a single tear slid down his cheek as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

He didn't notice the man in the shadows, watching him. It was indeed, Hades. Lord of the Underworld, God of the Dead, and ex-Olympian. It stirred something inside of him, a long forgotten emotion, and one he hadn't felt in hundreds of years. He couldn't place it correctly though.

He sighed, and nodded to a dryad, who bowed to him as she passed by. He couldn't leave the boy…he couldn't, but he had to. This would mean trouble with Zeus…and he needed to prepare for the worst.

He took a last glance at the sleeping form of Percy Jackson, and sighed again. He waved a hand, and a shimmering ball of dark energy passed into the boy. _Let them know Lord Hades was here_, he thought. He pulled on his helm, his symbol of power, and shimmered out of the world of the living.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: **The Son of Hades

**WARNING:**** This story **_**WILL**_** take a turn for the "M" rating within the next few chapters. Some pretty dirty stuff too, so you've been warned people! If you don't like lemons, trade them for oranges and clear out! XD**

**AN:**** Yes, Percy will be with Luke eventually in this story, but I want to get some of his childhood and things out of the way first, so bare with me…I've got things planned for Percy. Oh, ho ho ho!*evil French laughter*I try to update as soon as possible (since I know how it feels when I get hooked on a story, and they don't update for weeks -_-). I'll try to have a new chapter up every two or three days, maybe sooner. On weekends I'll most likely post two in one day, or one chapter for each day…we'll find out.**

Percy awoke to the sound of cars passing by. He opened his eyes slowly to see the nature spirit above him, and he realized she was carrying him. They were by what appeared to be a huge letter "H" in a dark secluded area. She set him down gently, on a blanket woven out of grass, and wrapped him up.

"This is where I leave you, demigod." Percy was over taken by fear. What if the sphinx got him, or the hydra, or the boar, or the Lamia? What if the hellhound came looking again? He started to hyperventilate. Seeing this, the nymph smiled gently.

"Do not worry, you'll be safe here, Percy Jackson, and besides, you'll be asleep for the most part."She said.

She stroked his hair. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, hugged him close, and murmured something in Ancient Greek, a final blessing. Suddenly, Percy became extremely tired, and the last thing he saw before his eyes closed was the smiling face and sparkling green eyes of the girl.

**Meanwhile….**

Down in the Underworld, Hades was having a spell done on a necklace. This was no ordinary spell, nor an ordinary necklace. The necklace was a simple silver chain, with an onyx pentagram at the bottom. Hecate finished her spell, and gave the necklace to Hades. She was now in her Crone form, for it required wisdom and knowledge to cast a spell that specific and powerful.

She was an ancient, knarled grandmother now, wearing a black cloak, a key around her neck, and held a wooden staff in her hand. Before her hair had been long, wavy and brown, with grey streaks, and flowing freely in the wind, while in her Mother form. Now, in her Crone form, it was even longer, and a silvery white color, braided down one side of her neck with silver ribbons.

He thanked her for her time, and left with the necklace.

"Hades," she called back

"Yes?" He turned back to her.

"Remember my words, Hades." She said solemnly. He nodded, and asked: "where did you say the boy was again?"

"Behind that dreadful "Hollywood" sign, really, they should take down that ratty old thing" she had a look of extreme annoyance on her face.

Hades tried to cut in "I-"

But the Crone was just getting started, "Do you know how many times I've had to keep it from crumbling or falling and causing a-"she was cut off from her rambling.

"I remember now Hecate, thank you." Hades said quickly and turned to leave.

Now…..about the necklace: It was a charm. It hid any demigod from being tracked by a monster, or blocked them from seen by a god or even an oracle. If he was going to take him, he preferred not to be found out, and get in trouble for it. It would prevent even the boy's godly parent from seeing him. It would break all connections with the gods. Except the one he chose.

Hades had made this for the boy. The boy…..his name seemed to have slipped his mind. Perry? Peter? Peleus….?

"His name is Perseus!" Hecate cackled behind him from the inside of her cave.

Perseus….Hades remembered Perseus…..the first Perseus, anyway. Things didn't go too well for him, but they improved during the end of his time. He hoped things would turn out better for this Percy. _His_ _Percy now_, a whisper in the back of his mind said, but he paid no attention to it.

He ascended from the underworld nearby the Hollywood sign. A few minutes later, he saw him, Perseus. He was lying near the "H" wrapped in a grass blanket, obviously made suitable for him by a nymph. He looked down at the boy, and that something stirred inside him again.

Hades could still see the trace of the mark he had left Percy with the night before. It wasn't a physical protection charm, but a warning and a challenge. And the warning itself was clear to any and all dark spirits and monsters, harm this boy, and you've given yourself an audience with the Lord of the Dead. Take up the challenge, touch him, and you'll be boiled in your own blood and cast into Tartarus.

Hades picked him up, and Percy's arms automatically wrapped around Hades neck, probably subconsciously thinking he was a satyr. Hades smiled slightly, and without noticing it, tightened his hold on the boy. He took off his silk black cloak and covered Percy with it, and then he made his way back to the entrance to the Underworld.

As he descended slowly into the darkness, he found himself clutching Percy to him, closer to the warmth of his body. The Underworld was cold in most places, and people thought Hades to be ice cold in body temperature. This wasn't true; Hades was only slightly cooler than an average human/demigod.

_Stereotypical_, Hades thought as he rolled his eyes, then stopped to glare at a hellhound in the shadows of a nearby cave, which was growling as it sensed half-blood. Immediately, it ran away, and Hades kept on walking again. They were passing the gates of the Fields of Punishment now, and eerie screams and moans echoed in the enclosure.

Percy mumbled something about blue pancakes in his sleep, and Hades hushed him. It would be better if he wouldn't wake up while they were in a particularly dark place. He didn't want him getting scared; he would rather have him wake when they were in the safety of his palace.

_Where will he sleep?_ Hades asked himself. _What will he think when he wakes up?_ He started to panic a little. _What if he cries? What if he tries to run away? What do I know about him really? What-_

A thought struck him for the first time: _What will Persephone say? _

He ignored this. He loved Persephone, but if his queen wanted to do anything to Percy, he would have to go through him first.

They entered the palace, and Hades was pleasantly surprised, because he then knew where Percy would stay. He walked down a hallway, branching off from the throne room, made a few left and right turns, the stone floor getting steadily escalating as he went. He came to a crossroad hallway; made a few more turns, and came to a dead end. He was standing in front of a dark wood door.

The door opened into a seemingly normal room, a bit bigger than average. It had a small dusty bed, which measured about four feet wide, seven feet long, three other doors, two glassless windows, two balconies, and a few spider webs clinging to the walls. He sighed, he'd forgotten this room hadn't been used in years, and momentarily forgetting he was a god, went to get cleaning supplies. Then he remembered, and rolled his eyes at himself, scoffing.

He had a rather tiring day, and he didn't feel like summoning whole skeletal warriors, so instead he conjured a broom, mop, pine-sol, wire scrubbers, rags, disinfecting wipes, window wipers, and just about everything else needed for cleaning.

He conjured a new bed too, the same one, just newer and much cleaner. He summoned black sheets and black pillows, and lied Percy down on it, just in time, because the boy started to wake.

Percy opened his eyes, and in a split second all Hades forgotten fears came back to him, in reality, he was more afraid of Percy's reaction than Percy was of him. Percy pulled the covers up to his nose, and looked at him with big, sleepy unblinking eyes, and it was only when Hades said "Hello" nearly two minutes later, that Percy did blink.

"Hi," Percy said, pulling the covers up back down, relaxing slightly. It was only then that Hades really looked at Percy. The six year old had raven black hair, big, intelligent sea green eyes, and fair skin. He had a bruise on his left shoulder, which at Hades touch, faded out of existence.

He also had a look on his face not of a fearful child, but of a child that has seen death, tragedy, treachery, and a terrible amount of the horrors of the world. The look on his face expressed that he had known real pain, and Hades hated it.

"My name is Hades," Hades said, and some of the confusion fell from Percy's face.

"Like the god Hades?" Percy asked and it was Hades turn to look confused. "Yes, child, I am Hades, god of the dead." Percy had solved the last piece of the puzzle. Hades saw things click into place in Percy's eyes, now filled with grim understanding.

"Are you going to kill me?"Percy spoke barely audibly, but Hades picked up half sadness, half hopefulness in his voice.

"What? Of course I'm not going to kill you!" Hades felt a pinch of pain at knowing the boy thought he was going to kill him.

"Then why am I here…my lord?" The last part was added as Percy thought he was being rude.

Hades sighed, and then smiled. "No need for the "lord". Just know Percy Jackson, you're in good hands now, and you're safe. You're going to live here with me."

"In…in the Underworld…?" Percy's eyes widened and he looked around him at the cleaning supplies quickly but thoroughly cleaning every square inch of the room. Hades scowled at the supplies, and then nodded the answer to Percy's question.

"Come on, were going to get you cleaned up." Hades said, grabbed Percy, and lifted him into his arms. They made their way across the room to one of the three doors, and opened a door into a bathroom. It had a tub the size of a Jacuzzi, a whole cupboard filled with everything a bathroom should have, a crystal sink, a whole wall for a mirror, and a knob that you could brighten or dim the lights with.

Hades ran the bath water as he undressed Percy, healing broken skin and purple bruises as he did so, and wondering how anyone, let alone a child, could be so enduring of the injuries. He helped Percy into the warm water, and washed him thoroughly, lightly scrubbing with a washcloth, with gentle soap. Hades then got up to go get a towel.

Once Percy was properly dressed in silky grey pajamas, and into bed Hades left him with a nightlight, a goodbye, and started down the hallway back to the throne room.

Halfway down the first hallway, he stopped. Thoughts were racing through his head at the speed of light. He leaned against the wall, and sunk to the ground.

What was he doing? Pretending to be some sort of…..parent? He knew nothing of parenting! He didn't know what to do! Why did he take the boy in, in the first place? Was he trying to be a father? It's been so long since he had a child. He was just any other demigod! There were hundreds upon hundreds in the world and the same for gods! What was so different about him? He was just any other demigod, just like the others…

He heard a faint, familiar sound, but not a pleasant one. He got up shakily and walked to the boy's bedroom. He sighed mournfully, and then opened the door. There he was, sitting by the window. Percy was crying quietly.

Hades froze.

He was crying…of course he was crying! How could he have forgotten? He hadn't put any protection on the room! Daring monsters could just climb up the walls and steal away with him when Hades had his back turned!

The instant this thought struck him, Hades panicked and rushed to the window, unnecessarily blasting a huge wave of black energy out the window, (probably vaporizing anything in a three-mile distance) and plucked Percy off the cold floor, pulling him away from the window.

Hades cursed himself for being so forgetful. The screams of the souls in The Fields of Punishment were deafening in the silence. He made the room silent to the screams, and looked at the shaking form of Percy in his arms. He no longer looked stern and fearless. Hades knew he had come undone, he looked scared and terrified.

Hades had left him in a dark, cold room filled with the screams of the dead, unprotected. Of course he was crying….

Hades was so caught up in his thoughts that he nearly jumped when Percy said something.

"I shouldn't be here." Percy said and Hades confusion rose.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I shouldn't be here….." Percy choked back a sob, big tears rolling down his cheeks. "My mama is dead. I have nothing, I-I should've died with her! I should've been there to protect her!"

"There's nothing you could have done." Hades said softly.

"I should have been killed with her!" Percy sobbed, and Hades got the feeling it was the first time he had said it out loud. His heart broke.

"Don't say such things….there is nothing you could have done to stop it from happening." Hades repeated.

"It doesn't change anything. I have nothing, I have no one now. " Percy sobbed, and Hades heart broke a little more. He slowly lied down next to the boy, releasing a long sigh, and wiping his tearstained face with the sheet.

"You have me now Perseus." He said softly, and Percy looked at him.

"My lord…."

"Dad, Perseus. Daddy now," The words were starting to come more naturally, with sincerity and truth. Hades eyes were soft, though unsettling to most, they were strangely comforting to Percy. They were onyx colored, black, but a lighter shade than the charcoal color of his pupils. He smiled gently, and held out an arm, and the cover. Percy crawled into the warmth of Hades' embrace, and clung to him….and cried.

Hades knew.

Hades was sure now.

Percy Jackson….was not like any other demigod….he _wasn't_ like any other.

Because he was his son….he was his son now, and Hades was no longer pretending to be a parent. He _was_ a parent. He was his dad now. It didn't matter who his real father was. Nothing mattered but him and Percy now. He was the six year old Percy's daddy, and Percy was his child, his little boy...

Hades clutched Percy closer to himself.

Hades made a vow to himself and to the River Styx then. The vow was: he would see this boy grow up, and he would see him grow up safe, with laughter, and a good father. He would see Percy grow up happy. He would see Percy grow up strong and healthy. He would see the child buried inside that Percy really was. He would watch _his son_ grow up, just the way he was meant to.

And it just might have been the most dangerous oath of the century.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:** Sally's short-lived Victory

**WARNING: ****Read the Rating Peeps! Lemony male/male chapters are sure to come in the future! If it's too hot to handle I suggest you shield your eyes. **

**AN: ****Yo! Once again, sorry for having to repost and all…..OH! You know…I didn't really like Annabeth in the first book. I thought she was kind of annoying. -_- But I loved her in the other books, so…we'll see how things turn out. This is an out-of-character story, after all. I don't have any particular attitude or any specific role for every character yet, I'm kinda making things up as I go, but I have a few set events that will happen…and…yeah, we'll just have to see. XD This is not a very good chapter, I know, but tomorrows my last day of the hell called school for the week, so I'll try to have another, better, longer chapter up then.**

"Tisiphone what are those?" Percy asked and pointed to three islands in the distance. They were next to Elysium, but he couldn't remember the names of them.

"Those are the Isles of the Blest Perseus." She said as she flew closer to them to give Percy a better look.

"The Isles of the Blest…?" Percy murmured.

"Yes. The Isles of the Blest is sort of like Elysium….The Isles of the Blest is a holy place for the purest of souls. Hades offers and option for the souls in Elysium. They can choose try for the Isles, or stay where they are. By choosing to try for the Isles of the Blest, you're choosing to be reborn three times, and to each time achieve Elysium…then you go to the Isles of the Blest." She explained. They were not hovering over the islands. Percy smiled as Tisiphone soared over the River Styx.

Tisiphone was indeed, one of the three Furies. She was known as the Avenging, or the Retaliator. She and her two sisters kept the evil souls in check both on earth and in the underworld.

Little did people know, they weren't always the way they look when their on a hunt. They are sometimes beautiful women, and sometimes ugly hags. Either way, you wouldn't want to get on their bad side.

It had been six months now since Hades had found and taken Percy back with him, and Percy was adapting fairly well. He'd get to see his mother once or sometimes twice a day in Elysium. Hades was probably breaking a few rules picking favorites, but he honestly didn't care.

He had given Percy the charmed necklace, but now, he was so fond of Percy, sometimes Sally would have to stop him from taking off the charm, and holding his son up on display for every god to see. Even though Sally herself was also proud of Percy, she knew that would be a very dangerous thing to do.

"Can you take me to Elysium?" Percy said over the loud noise of wind in his ears.

"Of course," Tisiphone said, and with a wicked grin on her now beautiful face, picked up speed, and fell into a steep dive. Percy laughed and shrieked as she flew up again, dodging stalactites and multicolored crystals hanging from one of the underworlds low ceilings. They were hundreds of feet up, but the upper ceilings were still about a mile and a half above them.

Tisiphone laughed with him, and extended her bat like wings into a glide. She had taken a liking to Percy, as did the other Furies. When Hades was busy moving along traffic, or going "upstairs" for some sort of counsel with the other gods, at least one of the three sisters were with Percy, either hovering above him, or down on the ground with him.

Then again, he could always go to Sally's house in Elysium too…

She landed gracefully on the healthy green grass, and dropped Percy off of her back. Immediately, Percy ran into the house, yelling his goodbye to Tisiphone. She smiled, and instead of flying, walked through the Elysian Fields enjoying the glow of the plants that created the artificial sunshine.

**Inside the house….**

"Hi mama," Percy said as he ran into the kitchen and threw his arms around Sally.

Even after six months, he still couldn't believe he had his mother back, and still had dreams of her lying dead on the floor. He would wake up crying, and Hades would have to run to his bedroom and calm him. As soon as Percy saw him, everything would be better, and the same with his mom. Percy now knew Hades would give him the universe if it made him happy. He knew Sally loved him, and it would always be that way. H had his, parents and he loved them. Even if they weren't really a family,(as in the man was married to the woman and they had a child) he couldn't have asked for a better one.

Any intelligent fool could see that Hades wasn't Percy's real dad. Percy didn't care at that moment who his biological dad was, and he didn't really want to know. Sally saw this and hadn't said anything about the matter. Hades was his daddy. Sally was his mommy. He was happy now, everything was perfect when he was with them, and that was enough.

"Hello sweetheart," Sally smiled, and it lit the whole room even brighter. She hugged him back tightly, picked him up, and swung him around the bright blue kitchen laughing like Percy. "I was making cookies, want to help me?" she asked, and he jumped at the chance. They made blue cookies with chocolate chips, and set them to bake in the oven. At one point, while they were eating the extra chocolate batter out of the two bowls,

"So what are we going to talk about today?" Sally said, and Percy smiled. It was sort of a joke they shared, though not very funny. They had already gotten everything out in the last months together since sally didn't have to work, and Percy didn't have to go to school.

"Riddles?" Percy laughed at the look on Sally's face. "Twenty question? Charades?" Sally threw her hand to her eyes, and Percy laughed again. The last charades game didn't go to well. She did not look like a gorgon. She scowled.

"Riddles then," she smiled then, "start."

"I am the end of time, and the end of time and space, I am essential to creation, and surround everyplace, what am I?" Percy smiled. He had stumped her this time.

"A-" Sally stopped herself, furrowing her eyebrows. "What?"

Percy wrote it down on paper, and gave it to her.

"What?" she finally said.

"The letter 'E'"

"Ugh! Not fair!"

Sally threw her paper down childishly, and Percy giggled. "My turn again!"

"Okay, I'm ready this time!"

"It is more evil that the devil, and greater than god. It is what every rich person needs, and what every poor person has, and if you eat it, you'll die...what is it?" Percy grinned in triumph at the look on Sally's face.

"Why did I raise such a smart boy?" she ruffled his hair, and thought it over.

"...nothing?"

Percy's mouth fell open.

"How did you know?"

Sally rolled her eyes. "I'm not as unobservant as I look." She said, and glared playfully.

"It would help if I actually believed in one god or devil, but nothing is greater than "god" or more evil than the devil...so I just put two and two together." She smiled, and laughed.

Percy lost his grip on the spoon he was holding, and the room went silent. Sally got an unexpected chocolate mask, nearly falling over in surprise as the spoon fell into one of the huge bowls of batter, and splattered it all over her face.

"So this is how it's going to be." Sally tried desperately to keep a straight face under the thick blue better on her face, acting like Percy did it on purpose.

She sighed dramatically, and pursed her lips at her son who had his hands over his mouth, and eyes wide. Then, Percy reached over, swept a finger across her face, and licked it off.

"Mmmmm," Percy giggled, and then screamed as Sally threw a handful of batter at him from across the table. He ducked, and it missed him (though not by much) and splattered on the floor behind him. He looked back up at Sally, who was grinning, with her hair messy from when she nearly fell from her chair, and a face full of blue chocolate batter, and laughed at how crazy she looked at that moment.

Then she threw another handful at Percy. He tried to duck again, but this time, it got all over his hair. When she shook his head around like a dog, the batter acted like a creamy blue hair gel, spiking his hair up at all angles. It was Sally's turn to laugh, and Percy playfully glared at her.

Now it was war.

They chased each other around the house, throwing batter and making the place look like a tornado of blue batter hit the place, which was almost what they were doing.

They finally both fell over the splash in the kitchen, and collapsed laughing. They changed cloths shortly after, and went out onto the back porch. They lied down on fluffy blankets and stared at the crystal stalactites, acting as stars. That's how they fell asleep; in each other's arms and the warm bond of parent and child between them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

**Warning**: **Yes, this story is slash, as in male/male. There'll be pretty hot chapters later, so if you don't like male/male, you'd better go. Don't be a hater! Be a masturbator! XD**

**AN:**** Yes, Persephone will meet Persephone, and yes, Nico and Bianca will be in this story. I don't...hmmm, okay, I had to look it up e_0 lol. Yeah, everything will be explained in good time lovelies. Patience leads to great things. Reviews make me happy. Thank you for your concern about school redrobin ;D I'll survive somehow. As for the sentence grammar and flow...I really don't see anything wrong with it. DX What am I doing wrong? Then again, I **_**was**_** writing while having to force myself to keep at least one eye open...that's how tired I was! And last night, I was writing half asleep and messed up a lot, so then had to redo half the thing! AND I STILL MANAGED TO UPDATE XD! Score 1 for the little people! You guys are just lucky I'm a nice person and don't make you review ten times before I post again! On with the story!**

Hades stalked around the corner, trying to be stealthy. _Yeah right_, he though and scowled; a lovesick Minotaur would be stealthier than he was with his boots clomping all over the floor. He heard a noise behind him, and whipped around, just in time to the tail of one of Hecate's bloodhounds go around the corner. They seemed to like Percy, and came around often to see if he would play with them.

Right now, they were playing hide and seek, and Hades cursed himself for even suggesting it. He hadn't known it would be so hard. He had heard of the game once, while walking among the mortals on earth, and thought Percy would like to play. He had been looking in his palace for nearly an hour now, he had tried to get the ghosts in the palace to tell him where Percy was, but they just smiled and vanished.

Sigh.

Wait...if the bloodhounds liked Percy...

"HA!" he yelled in triumph, not realizing how silly he sounded to the ghosts, who were laughing, and bolted around the corner, all thoughts of stealth forgotten. He ran down five hallways, and heard howling, then a hushed giggle. He smiled at the sound and rounded the corner, to a particularly dark hallway where Percy was being kissed to death by half a dozen bloodhounds.

"Gottcha!" Hades dived toward Percy before he could attempt to run away. Percy screamed and thrashed in Hades arms, as he was carried away, and the hound's trailer after them. They were jumping around Hades waist, trying to get their new friend down from his arms.

"Here now, I won fair and square!" Hades said triumphantly, as he held onto his sons laughing, squirming form. He lifted Percy onto his shoulders, and Percy covered Hades eyes with his hands, but Hades knew the hallways too well, and didn't have trouble avoiding running into walls or furniture.

"You can't win at hide and seek, daddy." Percy said in amusement.

Hades playfully glared at him when he removed his hands. "So I _didn't_ win?" Hades asked, with fake anger in his voice.

"Okay, okay, you won!" Percy said, pretending to be scared, and Hades laughed, the ghost of it echoed through the halls. They made it to the front of the palace, and walked on the black grass, to the back of the palace, through the gates, and into the gardens. Percy plucked a leaf off of a tree, and it turned into a diamond shaped onyx stone. He scowled (he'd seen that trick one too many times) and threw it down. There was a maze of neatly trimmed black and silver bushes to the left of them, and Percy thought that's where they were going to go, before they were interrupted.

"Hades, I-"Persephone stopped short as saw the two. To say Percy was surprised was to say the least; he had never seen the Queen of the Underworld in person before. She was dressed in a long, flowy, emerald green dress that brushed the floor, a black shawl around her shoulders, and black slippers. Her black hair was braided down one side with shimmery emerald ribbon.

"Oh," she smiled slightly. "Who's this?" she asked. Percy hung on tighter to Hades as he lifted from his shoulders and into his arms. Percy knew Persephone didn't favor his daddy's children. They meant he had been in a relationship with a mortal, and of course, she wasn't fond of that.

"Persephone, my dear," Hades smiled a little uneasily. "I didn't know you'd returned. Is it winter already?"

"It _is_," Persephone said, and looked at Percy again. "Who's this?" she repeated.

"This is Perseus Jackson," Hades said and stood tall, but he still had a vice grip on Percy, as if she would rip him away. "...my son."

Persephone didn't look surprised. "Oh?"

"He's my son, yes, but not biologically." Hades had a sort of pleading look in his eyes. "Hecate found him. He had no family, his mother was beaten to death, and he doesn't even know who his godly father is. He was at the mercy of monsters, Persephone, I couldn't just _leave him_." He needed her to understand.

"I know, dear." Persephone came over and kissed his cheek, still not looking taken by surprise in the least. "If he is what keeps you happy," she looked at Percy "and keeps you from mourning and being gloomy all the time, I won't mind." She said. She faced Percy fully for the first time.

She pinched his cheek a little, "Smile, it's good for you." She walked gracefully past them, and disappeared down an entrance into the maze Percy hadn't noticed before. They stared after her, jaws slack, and postures slumped. They looked at each other, and then back to the place Persephone had gone, and slowly turned to walk back inside.

They walked up the first few steps into the palace, and through the dimly lit hallways and rooms. Hades was tired from a day of playing with his son, but still carried Percy, and it was probably a good thing; Percy was tired too, and didn't know how long he could stay up. He usually slept in Hades bed or in Elysium with Sally; it might seem childish, but this would be the first time he slept alone. He wasn't scared, maybe a little, but he was more afraid Hades would stand guard outside the door and irritate Persephone.

He could barely keep his eyes open now, and he heard Hades chuckle as he sleepily pulled off his shoes and socks. Suddenly, he was a lot more comfortable than he should have been, and opened an eye to see he was in the same silk pajamas he had worn his first night in the Underworld. Hades had switched his clothes. He smiled, and only felt Hades kiss his forehead before he fell asleep.

Hades watched his son sleep for about ten minutes, smiling. He murmured a blessing over his son, then over the small sleek form in front of him, scribbled on a piece of paper, and knotted the ribbon, before smiling, and leaving the room.

Percy's dreams were filled with random things. Mostly happy things, though sometimes nightmares would creep in, and scare him.

Tonight was different.

_He was somewhere in the fields of Elysium, he could tell that much. Standing in front of him was a man, dressed in a dark blue ancient Greek tunic, and leather strap sandals. Percy thought he was an angel of some kind, this time not because of an angelic act like Hecate, but because of his appearance. He was beautiful. The angel had strait black hair, fair skin, a radiant smile, and wings; huge golden angel wings, which fluttered softly as he landed in front of him._

_The angel smiled with more enthusiasm as he landed in observed Percy up close. Percy noticed he had a golden bow and a quiver with golden arrows attached to his back, when he leaned in close, Percy smelled a heavenly aroma coming from the angel that made his head buzz pleasantly. Percy remembered thinking that the beautiful creature in front of him could only be a god. Then Percy had a probably dangerous though: this man in front of him could rival Aphrodite herself. The god smiled again, eyes shining, like he had heard Percy's thoughts. _

"_You are sweet." He said in a deep, beautiful voice that went perfectly with his appearance. He kneeled and touched Percy's face with his hand, only to pull back suddenly, as if he'd been burned. The god sighed, but perked up a bit again, and reached a hand toward Percy from an arms distance, stopping just before making skin contact. _

"_Perseus Jackson, you are a divine being." The god said breathlessly, and Percy thought he was seeing much more than Percy's physical appearance, and much more than the present time. The god reached over and pointed his index finger toward Percy, which glowed with golden light. _

"_You have my blessing." He said, and touched Percy's forehead gently. Then Percy was woken up from his dream._

Percy awoke to something wet on his face. He sat up so quickly he got dizzy. He lied back down slowly, and calmed a little when he heard the familiar sound of sniffing and yapping. One of the hounds had probably crawled into bed with him. But when he looked down, what Percy saw wasn't one of Hecate's hounds.

It was an all-grey, greyhound puppy, with a white ribbon and a note attached to its black leather collar. But that wasn't what was strange about it; it had two heads. Percy momentarily thought it was Cerberus, but then remembered that Cerberus wasn't a puppy, and had three heads, not two.

It jumped on Percy's legs and licked his face, which Percy realized was what he had felt when he woke up. Percy laughed a little and petted the dogs head with one hand while scratching behind his ears with the other. He lied back down, and cuddled with the puppy before retrieving the note from its studded collar that didn't really go with its cuteness. The note read:

_Perseus, _

_Your mother and I have been thinking of getting you a pet for a while, so you don't get lonely wandering the palace, or when you're out on walks. I was the one who brought him to you, yes, but I can't take all the credit. Your mom brought up the idea that we should get you a dog, so of course, it was give them what they want, or face something worse than death; their anger._

_This is Laelaps. Every few centuries or so, he dies, and is reborn. He is a purebred greyhound, an excellent guard dog, even at the age of three months. Laelaps is destined never to fail a hunt of any kind, and to always catch his prey. The only other dog, which could possibly protect his owner better, or travel faster is maybe Cerberus. He will make sure nothing goes astray when he's with you._

_-Daddy_

Percy smiled, and sat up in bed, carefully this time. He walked over to his dresser, and grabbed the black cloak that his father had given him. He slipped it on, and buttoned it at the neck. Then he set off out of his room for a walk, with the puppy on his heels. He was well rested now, and wanted to see where that entrance into the maze led to. Percy spent most of his time in the gardens, and he must have known all the entrances, and twists and turns by now. So if he hadn't noticed it before, it must have meant, either it opened only for Persephone, or when Persephone wanted it to. If that was the case, it was probably dangerous, but he was curious, and had a one-track mind.

He padded down the hallways, then out into the front of the palace. He went around the block trail around the palace for a few minutes, until he reached the gates. In front of the gates was the Nemean Lion. It had been killed a few years ago, and hadn't reformed into the world of the living yet. The lion guarded the gardens when Hades and Percy were asleep (not necessarily nighttime, because no one in the Underworld knew what time it was up above). The lion growled loudly when it saw Laelaps, but when it realized he was with Percy stopped, and let them pass.

The maze was beautiful. It had every common and exotic flower imaginable growing in "rooms" within the maze. It had every precious and semiprecious stones, common and rare metals growing on the form of flowers, vines, bushes and trees in different rooms. The bush-walls and grass were a mix of natural green grass and the Underworlds black bush-walls and grass. It was protected by a foot and a half thick wall of black stone, and in front of that, celestial bronze gates.

Percy went to the spot where Persephone had opened and entrance, and watched as the branches pulled apart, opening for him. He stepped inside, and felt the green grass and soft soil squish beneath his feet. Not long after he entered the new path, he came to a room that he hadn't seen before. In the room was a large pond, with fresh, crystal clear water. In the water was dozens of different fish, and long green grass. On the edge of the pond was the Queen of the Underworld, gazing into the water with far away eyes. The only thing different about her now was that her black shawl was now replaced with a cloak.

She looked at him, and slowly arranged something similar to a smile. "Hello Perseus." She said and nodded in greeting.

Percy smiled a little, and bowed, "My lady." He said, and sat on the grass, Laelaps came to sit by him, whining softly until Percy gave some attention to him, and rubbed his belly.

"What brings you to my private garden?" she asked.

"What?" Percy asked, confused now. "Weren't you the one who opened it to me?"

"I was," Persephone said. "But obviously something brought you here."

"Oh." Percy blushed a little. "I just saw you walk in here earlier. I was curious," he said. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," she said and smiled now, a real, genuine smile. "Though, curiosity killed the cat. You should be more careful...curiosity can lead you to knowing things no one should have to. But that can wait until later, what about your dreams?"

"How did you know about that?" Percy asked, mystified.

"I can tell when that beauty of a god makes an appearance from fifteen miles away." She said, and rolled her eyes. Percy sat up straighter.

"You know who he is then?" he asked her. She nodded slowly, and her emerald eyes looked slightly guilty.

"I do, but you'll find out for yourself one day." She said, and then muttered to herself again, "you'll find out one day..."

"Is there anything you _can_ tell me?" he asked, clearly frustrated now. She smiled, and repeated "Curiosity killed the cat, Perseus."

"Wasn't there a story about something like that?" Percy let out a huge breath to calm himself, and thought for a few seconds. "...about a woman who released all the demons into the world by looking into a box?"

"Pandora," Persephone nodded. "the first woman. My father, Zeus, gave her a _jar_, as a gift" she scowled. "I don't know where all this _box_ business started." She shook her head. "Anyway, she wasn't supposed to open the pithos, which was the name of the jar, but her curiosity got the best of her and she opened the jar. Doing this, she released all the evils into the world; illness, diseases, plagues, the first demons and such." She said, and sighed.

"Would it be rude of me to ask why you're telling me this?" Percy asked.

"No, I suppose not." She smiled. "I'm telling you this, Percy, because one day something will happen..." she looked down on him seriously. "...and you will suffer a great loss because of curiosity." She said. "And I wanted to warn you. But the one who told me this will only let me warn you once, when your still young."

"Someone told you to tell me this?" Percy asked. "Why?"

Persephone shrugged. "I'm just as mystified by it as you are probably." She furrowed her brow. "The person who told me this said that I needed to tell you this story, but..." she sighed. "I was surprised it was you. This was centuries ago, and the prophecy said that I would one day need to warn one of my husband's children." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You didn't look too surprised earlier."Percy said, and then remembered something else she had said. "What's an oracle?"

"Yes?" she asked smiling. "I've gotten rather good at hiding things like that, and right now, learn what your fathers teaching you, you'll learn about oracles sooner or later." Laelaps was yapping and running around her feet. He thought she would be scared, or even disgusted with the two-headed dog, and vaporize him, but she just bent over and scratched behind his ear, smiling. Then she was serious again.

"I was surprised because you're not my husband's offspring by blood...in biological terms, yet..." she leaned in close, studying the boy. "There is no denying, you are your fathers son." she said, and Percy got a warm feeling in his chest.

"You will forget the warning I have given you one day, and someone close to you will suffer for one small mistake. But it's unavoidable...and it won't be your fault Percy." She said, and got up to walk over to him. She unbuttoned her cloak, and wrapped it around Percy's shoulders. "This is a promise." She said simply, and walked back over to her previous seat. Percy decided it was best not to ask questions.

She looked at her pond again. A small amount of soil, and some seeds appeared in the goddess' hand, and she threw it into the pond. A few seconds later, lily pads sprung up from the bottom of the pond, breaking the surface, growing lilies flowers.

"My mother is Demeter, you know, the farming goddess." She watched as fish swam around the thin vines leading to the pads. "Which is why I have a way with plants other than the ones that only come in the spring." She nodded toward a section in the room filled with cacti and another with mini evergreen trees.

"Do you ever miss the world above in your time here, lady?" Percy asked, pulling the cloak tighter around him.

"I miss my mother sometimes and my father." she said, "But in my time above, I miss my king. I love him, even if he did have to capture me at first." She grinned, and chuckled slightly. Then she looked over at Percy, and went to sit next to him.

"You can expect no harm to come from me, to you or the friends you will surely have one day." She smiled, and caressed his face with her hand. "Goodnight, Percy Jackson, sweet dreams." He turned drowsy under the touch, and fell asleep a few seconds later.

Laelaps, the two-headed greyhound barked, and jumped around him in anxiety. Persephone picked him up, and carried him through and away from the gardens and into the palace, to his room. She lied him down, and covered him with the cloak she had given him. Then she went to her and Hades bedroom to go to sleep.

In the other room, Percy did have sweet dreams, as the goddess had said. He again, dreamt of the god with the lovely golden wings, and radiant smile.

**Another AN****: I hoped this chapter made up for lost time. XD I've got something planned for the next chapter! But it might take a few days again. :'( Sorry, I'm doing my best! Review please! I hope I didn't make any mistakes...that would **_**ruin**_** my **_**entire**_** SLEEP TONIGHT! DX I'm too tired to read it over now!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:** Dreams of Promise

**Warning:**** This story is rated "M" and contains male/male lemons. Don't like? If so please just click off the story instead of flaming. **

**AN:**** You guys know your mythology! ;D I'm proud of you! Not many people can recognize gods by their description anymore. So sad... There's so little appreciation for mythology anymore... Sigh. =( Bless Rick Riordan for bringing it back to the forefront of people's minds! XD I know I made a lot of mistakes, sorry. :'( It kills me when I wake up in the morning, and check the story and I see the stupid mistakes I made, UGH! I didn't name the last chapter did I? :/ Just be creative. One, more thing to apologize for; I'm sorry I've been neglecting to reply to your reviews (the ones to have accounts), but I appreciate every one of you guys, and read all the reviews. But after writing a chapter, I usually just drag myself to my room at three in the morning and pass out. e_e On that happy note, let's get on with the story.**

Hades looked down on his creation in satisfaction. He set it down on the soft grass of the garden, and walked off giddily toward the entrance/exit to the maze. Once inside his palace, he walked up the stairs and down the hallways to his bedroom, where his queen was just finishing brushing her hair. He smiled at the sight of her and then reminded himself to keep his mouth (and thoughts) shut.

"My love," Hades greeted as he came in, and kissed her cheek. She smiled at him as he sat behind her on the bed, fitting the hair that had gotten out of her braid back into place. He had been a lot more affectionate since "adopting" Percy, and Persephone hadn't been happier in hundreds of years.

"Having a good morning?" he asked as she turned around in his arms, and kissed him full on the lips. She smelled like roses and lilac, and tasted even sweeter.

"I am now," she said and laughed as he picked her up and walked out of the room. Everyone else in the underworld was probably asleep now, and in the world above it was about 12:00pm, midnight. Hades had asked her to be awake and ready for a surprise at this time, and of course, she complied.

Hades walked a little ways through the halls before putting her down, and taking a piece of black silk out of his pocket.

"_Wha_t are you _doing_?" she asked as he tied it around her eyes.

"Can you see anything?" he asked, and circled her, as she turned her head back and forth uselessly trying to find her husband through the blindfold. He danced out of the way, and grabbed her up again. She pretended to scream, and then giggled as she saw the elated look on her husband's face. He carried her to the gardens, taking new paths now and then to confuse her. Once in his selected spot, deep in the garden, he set her down on the large soft comforter he had laid out earlier. He untied her blindfold and she gasped. Then she hugged Hades, knowing full well what he had done.

In front of her was an assortment of fruits, vegetables and pastas found all over the world. There were various fruits growing in the shape of flowers in a bouquet, chocolate dipped, and cooled, vegetables of all kinds arranged in a mini-garden on a silver tray, pastas from every country, and every time period. There was wine made by Dionysus himself, and goblets carved out of emerald. Black and pink candles were everywhere, lit with all the colors of the rainbow. It was only when Persephone realized it was dark in the garden, that she looked up that she saw the top of the had a ceiling made of vines and leaves and flowers from springtime in full bloom. All together they formed a solid ceiling, allowing no light to enter the garden.

It was beautiful.

Everything was beautiful at that moment, the garden, the food, and Hades himself. What made it more beautiful was that she knew he had made it all, and set it up himself, with no skeletal servants to help him. He had gone through all the trouble himself, and she couldn't imagine how long that had taken him. Plus Persephone didn't know how she could possibly even sample all the food, Hades must have known that too, yet he had done it anyway. Persephone was vegetarian see, and it must have been pretty hard to find tasty dishes without meat...that made it all the more special.

"Its...beautiful." she finally said breathlessly, putting her thoughts into words.

Hades sat down next to her, and she leaned into him. He lied down backwards with her on his arm, and they gazed up to the green ceiling above them. When Persephone saw lights, she thought she was imagining things until she realized they were fireflies. There were hundreds of them, forming various shapes and scenes from ancient Greek times, happy ones. Then they spelled out the words "I love you" and Persephone beamed radiantly at her husband who smiled back lovingly.

"Happy anniversary." He said simply.

**That morning...**

_There were four kids running through the woods, with three hellhounds, a chimera, a wild boar, about a dozen various demons, and the three Furies on their tail. _

_One, a girl had shoulder length, choppy black hair, and electric blue eyes. She wore a black t-shirt, black leather jacket, jeans and black biker boots. She held a long, black and celestial bronze sword in on hand, and held her leg with the other. She was limping badly. One was a guy with short sandy hair, a blue t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, with a simple celestial bronze sword in his hand._

_One was another girl, with long blonde hair, she wore ragged pajamas and shoes that were about two sizes too big for her, she had a hunting knife strapped to her waist. The blonde girl was holding hands with a satyr, who was scrawny, had curly hair and a look of terror and desperation in his eyes. Of course, being a satyr, a nature spirit, he was weaponless._

_They ran as fast as they could climbing over a large hill, but the monsters weren't even phased by this. They kept onward, gaining on the four children with every step they took. They all looked tired, hungr y, and beaten down._

_The girl dressed in black turned toward the blonde guy. _

"_Keep going, get Annabeth to safety, I'll try to hold them off." She said, and slapped a bracelet on her wrist. A shield sprang from the silver bracelet, with a bronze Medusa head sticking out of the front. Percy thought it must have been a replica of Athena's (the wisdom and war goddess)shield, Aegis. _

"_I won't leave you," the blonde dude said, but on look at the little girl known as Annabeth and he caved. She was shaking, and smeared with blood, and bruised and utterly terrified. _

"_Well come back for you." He said, and thye ran off, over the hill. _

_The girl with the blue eyes turned and faces the group of monsters heading toward her. She stood bravely, but a single tear trailed down her cheek. She fought bravely too, until one of the monsters found and opening in her defense, and sliced her with razor sharp claws. She went down, and the monsters finished their cruel handiwork, until she was sliced up and bleeding both externally and internally, and left laughing. All except the Furies, who circled closer t make sure she was dying, before diving strait though the earth and back to the Underworld. _

_The only thing the people who had come to the girl's aid saw was her dying body soaking the ground with blood before a huge flash of lightning blinded them. When they opened their eyes again all they saw was a pine tree, about the size the girl had been, standing tall and proud on the hill. _

"Humph" Percy muttered stubbornly, and rolled over in bed as Laelaps licked his face, trying to wake him up. Percy scowled in his sleep, and rolled over again, covering his head with a black pillow.

"Just one more hour dad!" Percy said sleepily from under his pillow.

Laelaps growled, not a threatening growl, but a cute growl of annoyance. He nudged Percy with one of his heads, and whimpered slightly, longing for his master's attention.

Percy, thought half asleep, seen this and smiled lazily. He grabbed his dog and pulled him under the covers with him. Laelaps huffed, and then circled his selected spot, before curling up next to Percy's side, and drifting off to sleep too. Percy too, after petting his dogs sleek grey coat, fell into a deep, this time dreamless sleep.

A _few_ hours later, when Percy awoke again, he sat up and stretched in his bed. Laelaps barked next to him, and Percy scratched him behind the ears. Laelaps had grown up these last years. Five years to be exact. He was still slim but still slightly built. But greyhounds were built for running rather than fighting, still, he was three feet tall now.

Percy on the other hand, was eleven, and had grown up some from when he was six. Not a lot, he still had times when he acted childish, and then same for Laelaps. They would chase each other around, play in the mud and dirt, and race in the gardens and things like that. And sometimes, he would make Hades play hide and go seek with him by hiding for hours and then Hades would have to go find him personally (he was his son after all).

Not that Hades minded, he still saw his son as being a child that needed to be amused by his parents every hour of the day. That wasn't exactly the case...but Percy didn't mind that either. He knew Hades love for him hadn't lessened over the years, but grown impossibly stronger. He just liked to see his daddy rather than his dad once in a while.

He got up, and filled Laelaps bowl with water. It was a huge bowl, fit for even dogs with two heads. Percy smiled, and rubbed his dogs back before going over to the mini fridge built into the wall. He grabbed two slices of raw meat and plopped them down onto the square iron plate next to the water dish.

He let Laelaps eat while he got dressed, and then left the room with a satisfied Laelaps on his flanks, ten minutes later. He walked down to the kitchen, which Hades had ordered to be built for him when he first came to the Underworld. Some things had been modernized to make Percy more comfortable staying in the Land of the Dead. He was going to get something from the fridge when he tripped over something lying behind the kitchen counter and looked back, in fear he had somehow hurt Laelaps.

What he saw wasn't Laelaps.

It was his father, lying face-down in a puddle of blue batter.

"Dad!" Percy yelled, and Laelaps howled at the ceiling (a little overdramatically) and helped pull Hades over onto his back by grabbing onto his clothes with his teeth, and pulling. Once they got him over on his back, Percy saw Hades had a bruise on his head. Percy snapped his fingers in front of his father's face, and then shook his shoulder.

"Dad...?" Percy asked. "Daddy?" he repeated, and slowly but surely, the God of the Dead's eyes opened.

"Pancakes..." he muttered, and rolled to his side. Laelaps howled and barked in protest when Hades unsteadily got to his feet.

"Silence your yapping Laelaps, I'm fine." Hades said, and reached down to pet him comfortingly as he whimpered. "I'm fine." He repeated.

"What happened?" Percy asked, as he set to cleaning up he batter spilled on the floor.

"I don't know...I couldn't have been out for long though, I-I was making pancakes for you, and then I..." he looked down. "And then I was _knocked out by a frying pan_!" he exclaimed and pointed.

They all looked over to see a black frying pan on the floor that Percy hadn't noticed in his panic. The cupboard above it was wide open, revealing a wobbly stack of various cooking supplies.

Percy let out a sigh. He licked some sweet pancake butter off of the front of Hades shirt, and Laelaps followed the example.

"Do you see what you're teaching him Percy?" Hades asked and scowled down at the two-headed dog. Percy only smiled.

"So how about those pancakes?"

**AN:**** Not one of my better chapter I'll admit -_- I'll have another, better one up soon!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Revelations, and Curses

**Warning:**** This story is slash, as in male/male, if you don't like it? That's just sad, and I suggest clicking off the story.**

**AN:**** Yeah... :[ last chapter wasn't my best...actually it was the worst, I thought. Maybe this one will be better than the last one. I hope so...Also the credit of this chapter doesn't just go to me, but to my best friend in the real world too, Neeva, who helped me come up with the design for Percy's room. Oh, and **_**someone**_** (I'm not pointing fingers!) wanted to know when Luke's coming in, so I'd say... :/ the next chapter? No, there was no specific reason Hades was knocked out, lol. Percy's dream, when he was eleven, took place in the future, not the past, and...just read the chapter okay? 8D *crazy grin***

Percy poured another handful of liquid soap into his hand, and screwed the lid back on the bottle. Then he lathered the soap into Laelaps wet hair. Laelaps closed his eyes as Percy ran his hands over his head with soapy water. You only made the mistake of letting a spirit wash your dog once. The last time Percy had let a spirit wash Laelaps; he had used unsafe soap and turned the dog half bald for nearly two months. Percy had been almost as embarrassed as Laelaps, but Hades and Persephone had gotten a good laugh or two out of it.

Now, Laelaps was about four feet tall, graceful and lean muscled as ever. Like Percy, he was able to understand the meanings of both Greek and English words perfectly, as well as some Latin. Laelaps of course couldn't talk-that would be something-but had ways to make people understand what he wanted to "say". He could run so fast he was a grey blur, easily nine to ten yards a second, or ten miles a minute, and he always wore black leather collars with silver spikes. He had large, intelligent, exotic ice blue eyes, and inch-long, black claws as sharp as daggers (which he could retract at will).He listened to Percy, Sally, and of course, the King and Queen of the Underworld, but only them. But he sometimes disobeyed to be playful. Over all, he was a great pet, a great companion to have at your side, but a fierce and powerful enemy if it came to that. Percy had come to think of him as more than a pet, but like a best friend, or a relative. He was family.

Percy finished up washing his pet, and grabbed the hose from the opposite wall. He set the temperature to warm, and aimed it as the greyhound. "Ready?" he asked.

Laelaps gave a confirming bark with both heads, and turned his faces away. Percy let loose with his hose, and sprayed Laelaps until all the soap had washed off, and down the drain of the enormous bathtub. Percy closed the sea green curtains that matched his eyes, and smiled as he heard Laelaps shake his fur off.

He grabbed a towel, and rubbed his dog down with it, slowly drying his fur. Strangely, Laelaps didn't _smell_ like wet dog when he was wet, he smelled woodsy and of fresh grass and soil and flowers from the gardens.

"Who's a good puppy?" Percy asked jokingly in a baby voice. He knew Laelaps was far from being a puppy physically, but sometimes he still looked at him that way.

Laelaps barked, and hoped up on Percy's lap. 170 pounds of muscle were then lifted easily off of Percy's lap, and into his arms, as he danced around the room with his dog. He set them down on the bed, and laughed. Laelaps scoffed at him in his doglike way, well...if a dog can scoff at all. But he licked Percy's face with both heads, and jumped off the bed to pad out of the open door, to do his daily business.

Percy put an arm behind his head, and sighed. He closed his eyes.

Four years had passed since he had had a vision of the future, which revealed the girl with the electric blue eyes being brutally killed, then turned into a pine tree right before death.

He had gone looking for the girl in the Fields of Elysium; surely she would end up there after her brave and heroic act. But he had found nothing there, and he had even checked the Fields of Asphodel for her. Still, he had found nothing, and that told him that either the girl was still alive on earth, taken by some god, or still alive on earth _as_ the pine tree itself. It was all very confusing, and he got frustrated with it a few times. Even after _four years_.

It had been _nine_ years, nine long years since his first dream of the god with the golden wings. The god was indeed, Eros, the god of sexual desire and beauty. He was also identified as a fertility god. Percy didn't know why Eros had chosen him to bestow his blessing upon; Hades had said that he hadn't given a blessing to either girl or guy, mortal or demigod in centuries.

Eros also said that when he saw Percy nine years ago, when he was six, wasn't for the first time. He had things planned for Percy far before he was born, and it kind of scared Percy a little. He knew the god cared for him, enough to visit and bless him, but he also knew that gods sometimes over did things. _Way_ over.

Yes, Eros visited Percy through his dreams often enough, but he had never told him what his blessing actually meant, at least, not fully. He said that he would be able to make his own decisions about love in his life. No god or goddess would be able to tamper with his love life, it was part of the blessing, something that the god of love himself hadn't been given: free will.

"_As long as he didn't prick you with one of his arrows-"Hades face turned paler than before. "I suppose, it'll be fine." He told the eleven year old Percy. Hades had recognized the god as soon as Percy told him about his dream-vision. _

"_Of course it'll be fine." Persephone chided, and turned to Percy. "It's nothing to worry about..." she dropped her voice to nearly a whisper. "At least not right now..." she bit her lip and looked at Hades. _

"_Not right now?" Percy asked. "What don't I need to worry about?" _

"_You'll find out soon enough Percy, you're growing up so quickly," Hades managed a smile toward his son._

Percy recalled a conversation from when he was six. _You'll find out soon enough_, Percy scowled; he had been six then, now he was fifteen and he still hadn't found out!

According to myth, (or demigod history) Eros was the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, while he himself was the god of sexual desire as well as beauty. Sexual _desire _because Aphrodite declared upon his birth that he would remain a virgin forever, otherwise, he would lose his wings, and become mortal. He was the god of beauty because, the children of Aphrodite could be nothing but beautiful. He was sort of a male Aphrodite, but also her opposite.

Percy thought about his dreams of and how he told stories and little known facts about all types of gods and creatures. He was the one who retold his story to Percy.

Percy sighed, and closed his eyes for a second...a minute...he was asleep.

"_How could they have possibly found out?" Hades asked Persephone, and paced around the throne room. _

"_I've told you three times already Hades, I don't know." Persephone said, and flopped back into her flower-shaped throne._

"_DEMETER!" Hades accused, pointing a finger at the goddess of agriculture with a crazy look in his eyes. "Did you tell them of my son?" _

"_Hades!" Persephone scolded from her seat. "My mother may be annoying and impossible, maybe senile, and just a bit insane, but-"_

"_Hey!"_

_The Goddess of springtime rolled her eyes. "But she would never give us away, at least if she still wants me to come to earth for three seasons." She was glaring at her mother now. "You didn't do it, did you mother?"_

"_Of course not!" Demeter looked offended. "Such little faith in me, daughter!" she scowled. "Perseus is one of the few youths in the world with appreciation of agriculture anymore! Why would I want to get him struck down?" _

"_Besides" Demeter mused, "if I wanted him gone, all would need to do is turn him in to some wheat, or-"_

"_Mother!" Persephone slapped her on face with her hand, and sank even lower in her seat._

"_You will do nothing of the sort!" Hades exclaimed, and was about to tell Demeter what _he_ would do to _her_ if she did such a thing when she cut in._

"_I was only joking, lighten up a bit!" Then suddenly, there was a table with three bowls of shredded wheat. "Who's for some wheat?" she said cheerfully, and Hades looked at her weird._

"_Demeter has lost her marbles Persephone." he said in a hushed tone to his queen, and looked nervously at Demeter._

"_Marbles?" Demeter laughed as she poured 2% milk into the bowls. _

"_Let's make a break for it while we still have the chance!"He was straitening his black robes, looking ready to bolt at any moment. _

"_Hades," Persephone scowled. "I don't believe my mother would do anything to harm our family." _

"_Who else could know?" Hades asked. _

"_One of the monsters?" Persephone suggested. "Hermes?"_

"_They wouldn't dare." Hades eyes flashed dangerously. "And I've been _very_ careful to hide Percy when Hermes passes through, besides-_Percy_!"Hades eyes snapped to the main door of the throne room._

"_Percy what?" Persephone asked, and then looked too._

_The look on Percy's face said that he'd been there the whole time, but surprisingly, he too looked thoughtful. _

"_Percy..." Persephone looked at Hades. "Hun, um-"_

"_What about Eros?" Percy asked and Hades eyes flashed with anger, as he marched out of the throne room. _

"_EROS!" It was _not_ going to be a peaceful afternoon in LA. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"_

_Persephone sighed, and took the eight year old by the hand. "Let's go, Percy, or we'll have to watch your father attempt to strangle Eros." She marched out of the throne room, with Percy in tow._

"_Without even proof..." Persephone ranted, obviously appalled by her husband. "The nerve of him..."_

_**Three days later**_

_Percy stood in the throne room of Mount Olympus, and looked at the thirteen gods, all arguing. But as big as they were, (ten feet tall to be exact) and as loud as their voices were, Percy could only make out parts of the conversations. _

"_-think _you_ can tell me what to do with _my_ son-" Hades roared at Zeus._

"_not even his biological son-" That was Ares._

"_will go against ancient laws-"Hephaestus argued with Aphrodite._

"_want some cereal-" Oh, Demeter._

"_-at least figure out who his real father is before-" This was Poseidon. _

"_just a child, father we can't possibly-"Artemis, naturally protective of children._

"_ALL THE RIGHT MOVES IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES, SO YEAH, WERE GOIN' DOWN, SHE'S GOT-"Apollo blasted his iPod from six foot tall speakers._

"_Hebe, would you get me some diet-"This was Dionysus._

"_-we all just sit down and be civili-omph!"Hera was kicked in the head by a pair of winged sandals and started yelling at Hermes. _

"_QUIET!" Athena managed to make herself heard over the uproar in the throne room. Percy had been behind Artemis, who had grabbed him up protectively in her arms behind her back._

"_You fools!" she half-yelled "can't you see, your scaring the boy!" she said, and her words rang true. Percy was being clutched to the now nineteen-year old goddess, shaking in his sneakers, and plugging his ears. _

" _Percy." Hades looked ashamed. "I'm sorry," he grabbed him from Artemis' arms."I'm sorry." He repeated, and kissed the top of Percy's head._

"_Well one thing's for sure," Hera spoke, fixing her hair, from her unexpected sandal-attack. "The fate of the boy-"_

"_Depends on _the_ Fates" Apollo chimed in haughtily._

"_That as well, dear step-son" Hera continued, unfazed "but it also depends on the vote." She said, and huffed as she sat back down in her throne, which resembled a peacock._

"_The vote?" Percy asked._

"_The vote." Demeter said gently, "The vote is, of course a vote," she rolled her wheat-colored eyes "-obviously. Its when the Olympians vote on a difficult decision." _

"_A vote for what?" Percy asked cautiously. Hermes smiled comfortingly. _

"_A vote about your fate, my boy. Democracy among the Olympians is the only way to decide." He snuck a look at Zeus, who was staring intently at the eight year-old. _

"I _say he should go to Camp Half-Blood." Athena said, then looked apologetically at Percy. _

"Oh yes _let's just send him off away from his father! The wise one has spoken!" Hermes said sarcastically, and rolled his eyes._

_Athena glowered at her half-brother, and in a carefully controlled voice said, "Surely you can see sense in this Hermes. The boy is a demigod, and therefore, must be properly trained, and the only way to do this is to send him to Camp Half Blood."She turned to Hades. _

"_Demigods also have to be raised by their _mortal_ parents, _not_ their godly parent, adoptive or otherwise."She said, and gave a sympathetic look."It would go against several of the ancient laws to simply let you take Perseus, Lord Hades."_

"_Percy was at the mercy of monsters when Hecate found him!" Hades exploded. Artemis, Demeter, and Hera had a dangerous gleam in their eyes now, suddenly protective of the child._

"_We couldn't just leave him there, he could have _died_! He could have had his very soul devoured by the monstrosities chasing after him!" Hades waved his arms desperately._

_The gods were slightly in shock. This was very un-god-of-the-dead like. Ares took off his black Ray Bans and leant forward in his chair, eyes narrowed at the Lord of the Underworld. Athena straitened herself, and clutched the end of her armrest. _

_The last time the Lord of the Dead had felt so strongly for a demigod was so long ago-several millennia-that most of the gods had long forgotten it. It was very, _very_, un-Hades like. If Hades showed any emotion besides anger and hatred at all, it was for his lovely bride and queen; Persephone, Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, Goddess of Springtime. But this show of affection for the youngling was overly stunning. Not even Aphrodite, the _Goddess_ of love had shown such affection for a child since Adonis, and that was some time ago._

_The God of the Dead _didn't_ want someone to die. Hades would do anything for the boy in front of them. He would stop death. He would give him the Underworld and all its riches. He would give up his Helm of Darkness. He would give up immortality, and burn away in the Styx. He would go to the ends of the earth. He would do anything to keep his son with him. He was furious, yes, and looked ready to kill, but he was on the edge. He was ready to get down and grovel, if that's what it took. Every Olympian and every minor god present saw this; and it was enough to sway them._

_Surprisingly, it was Athena who spoke first. "Before we decide on anything," she looked at her dysfunctional family of sorts, "we are missing a very important piece of information."_

"_First, he must be determined." Zeus said, and everyone seemed to agree on that, except Hades. "Do you know who your father is dear boy?" _

"_No, but my mother might." Percy said, and the gods looked at each other. Apollo scratched the back of his head, and chewed his lip. Most of the gods looked at him, and soon everyone was looking at him with raised eyebrows and smirks._

"_What?" he finally asked. His cheeks tinted pink, and he sighed, then bent down to get a closer look at Percy. _

"_Hmmmmm..." He said as he inspected the boy._

"_You are the god of prophecy, are you not?" Ares mocked him from across the room._

"_I am." Apollo turned defensive, then he straitened, and gave a small grin to the son of Hades. "Though I would be honored, if you were," He smiled at Percy radiantly. "I'm 97% sure he's not mine!" he announced, almost dejectedly._

"_And the other 3%?" Hera asked. Apollo shrugged, though he kept his gaze on the boy in front of him._

"_Well, he has to be someone's!" Ares boomed. "Just look at the energy rolling off that boy!" Then his flaming eyes narrowed. "Now that I think about it, he could just be mine..." he trailed off, and a few gods rolled their eyes. _

"_My mom is Sally Jackson, if that helps any." Percy said meekly. "She died two years ago." He added._

_Poseidon's eyes widened, and then lowered in sadness. "Oh, Sally." Everyone looked at him then._

_Athena sighed tiredly. 'Well this changed things."_

"_You?" Zeus asked skeptically, the angrily. "_You_? How could you be so foolish Poseidon? You have violated the oath of-"_

"_Like you have any room to talk Zeus!" Poseidon roared, and Zeus actually flinched. "You broke the oath too! And for a lousy, blonde actress!" He yelled. "Sally Jackson had spirit! She had such passion, and potential!" _

"_Sally was a Queen among women! You know nothing of her!" The God of the Seas eyes were glossy. "I hadn't met such a mortal in over a thousand years!" He rubbed his face._

"_You?" This time it was the voice of a surprised boy, and they all stared at him._

"_Indeed, my boy." Poseidon as grim, but a sort of happiness flared inside him. "I am your father, Percy Jackson." Percy shifted his feet, and Hades seethed, but also mourned. He had surely lost his son now..._

"_Oookaaayyy." Percy said, shuffling his feet. He looked like he as at a loss for words, but not surprised. He looked at all the Gods in turn, before facing Zeus and Poseidon. "Can you please vote now?"_

_Hades grinned triumphantly, and turned to face Zeus, turning his nose up at Poseidon. Some eyebrows were raised, and jaws dropped, but Zeus only smiled slightly. Poseidon tried not to look hurt. _

"_A vote it is then," Zeus grinned. "All in favor of letting Percy Jackson stay with Hades?" Almost all the hands were raised; Zeus himself, Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, Demeter, Hera, Dionysus, and Aphrodite. _

"_Those not in favor?" Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, and Athena's hands went up. They had scowls on their faces at their obvious loss._

_Zeus leaned forward in his seat. "He will receive proper training?" _

"_Yes, of course! Really, how stupid do you think I am Zeus?" Hades looked slightly offended. _

"_And he _will_ go to Camp Half-Blood at the age of twelve?" Zeus' eyebrow went up. Hades fists clenched._

"_Seventeen. Don't think I'll let him go that soon!" Hades scoffed._

"_Thirteen!" Zeus' eyes narrowed._

"_Sixteen!" Hades squared his shoulders._

"_Fourteen!" _

"_Fifteen! Take it or leave it!"_

_Zeus huffed. "Fine! Fifteen then. Will he receive proper education of both worlds in the mean time?"_

_Hades smirked. "Don't insult me."_

"_What about summertime?" _

"_He will stay with me and Persephone in the Underworld, or if he chooses, the mortal world." Hades stood up strait. If any god protested, they didn't speak up._

"_It is settled." Zeus said, and held up his master bolt. A bolt of electricity shot out from the end, lighting the night sky brilliantly. _

"_He will stay with Hades in the Underworld."_

Percy mumbled something like "Don't shock me." In his sleep and rolled over.

_The nine year old Perseus Jackson tried skipping a rock on the salty water of the sea, and failed miserably. The sea seemed to quiet down, as if it were inviting him to try again, it was keeping itself still, just for him. He tried again, but it shot strait into the water- plunk! He heard a hearty laugh, and looked to his left._

_There was a man standing beside him, and he looked vaguely familiar. He had a neatly trimmed black and gray beard, sparkling sea green eyes, and perfectly tanned skin. He had light tan shorts on, and a flower-print button up shirt, that reminded Percy of Hawaii for some reason._

"_Hello." Percy said, not wanting to be rude, but at the same time, wondering how the man could have found him, at the section of beach he was at._

"_Hello." He man said, an upbeat tone in his voice. "Having trouble?"_

_Percy scowled. "Yeah, kind of. I got it the first few times, but I just lost it." He said, and his shoulders slumped. The man moved behind him to pick up a flat stone, then offered it to Percy. _

"_Its sort of like playing Frisbee." He said, and made a motion with his hand. "It's all in the wrist."_

_Percy did it like the man showed him, and...plunk! _

"_Ugh!" Percy stomped his foot childishly, wrinkled his nose, and crossed his arms. The man laughed at him, and showed him again, this time taking Percy's wrist and demonstrating how to throw properly. The next time Percy attempted throwing, he got it on the first try, his face lit up in a grin._

"_I got it!"_

"_Your sure did."_

"_My name is Percy Jackson." Percy said, holding out his hand to the man in front of him._

"_My name is Poseidon." The man said, and smiled warmly, but Percy's jaw dropped. Percy took a step back and bowed. _

"_I'm sorry if my being here was an inconvenience to you, Lord."_

"_Nonsense!" Poseidon smiled. "Your forgetting who's flesh and blood you were born from!" _

_Percy smiled almost nervously. "Um..."_

"_Will you come to my palace with me, Perseus?" Poseidon asked._

"_I don't think that would be the best idea..."Percy trailed off, afraid of offending the God of the Seas._

"_My brother can't control you forever my boy." Poseidon said gently._

"_My father isn't the one telling me not to go with you. In fact, he told me that you would want to know me one day." Percy smiled, seemingly in memory. "And he said I could do whatever I wished. But I'm just not completely comfortable going under the sea yet." _

_He looked up at his biological father. "I'm sorry."_

"_That's fine." The Sea God smiled, the boy was right to be cautious. He sat on the sand, and Percy sat next to him._

_Poseidon looked at his son softly, "I guess e have a lot to talk about."_

His eyes snapped open, at the sound of skeletal warriors working on the palace from don the hallway. He made the room soundproof both ways, by turning two of the four knobs on the wall next to his bed. Percy sighed, and sat up on his bed, rubbing his eyes. He walked over to his silver closet door, and opened it to get his cloths out.

He put on a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, with his normal black leather silver studded belt, and black leather, silver-toed boots.

Percy didn't consider himself goth, certainly not _emo, _and besides, they were both just stereotypes meant to categorize and separate people. In fact, he got kinda mad when people on earth would spit things like that at him.

He had his own reasons he dressed the way he did. His favorite colors were black, silver, and sea green, but because they reminded him of his father, Hades, the sea, which was his favorite place to go and silver, because of Hecate, who had been a third mother figure, next to Sally and Persephone. He wore his silver studded, black leather belt because it matched Laelaps' collar. He wore silver toed boots because he had once been attacked by a monster, tried to kick it with normal sneakers, and had almost broken his foot in the process. He had picked up a few things over the years.

He looked around his room, and smiled slightly_. He_ thought his room was pretty awesome, but some might have disagreed.

He had a king-sized bed, with grey silk sheets, and pillowcases, with a big fluffy black comforter, with grey spider web designs on it. His floor was black stone, his walls were painted grey. He had a black and purple lava lamp by his bed, on a dark wood table, and his top bedposts held torches lit with blue fire. His bed frame was made of glinting emerald. There were snakes engraved on his headboard that came to life if his door opened when he was sleeping. In a way, they were alive, and seen everything that went on in his room. They understood commands, and if Percy forgot where he put something, they would show him where he had left it.

On his windows and balcony doors he had purple curtains. He had a ruby desk in one corner, and in another corner was a huge, multicolored, sea glass fountain, with hot seawater running and spraying from the top. In his room, he had two glassless windows, but wind only blew in if he allowed it to. When he did, the wind would mix with the hot spray, and create a rainbow; this is how he would Iris Message people he knew "upstairs".

Notice everything in Percy's room was made of stone or metal? See, his father, Hades, was the richest of the gods; he owned everything under the earth, including all the precious and semiprecious metals and stones. So naturally, everything in the palace would be made of such.

He got up to go and get something to eat. He was half way through the throne room when he decided something else, and changed directions. He would go to Elysium and visit his mother. It had been two days since his last visit with her.

She had been keeping herself occupied too, with a man by the name of Paul Blofis. They had recently spent the day together, just goofing off, and Percy thought he was one heck of a guy. That made Sally happy, and Sally's happiness made Percy happy.

Before you ask, Paul was indeed dead. He had been killed in an explosion in the chemistry lab at the school he had worked at. The explosion was caused by a dimwitted student dropping their (secretly) lit cigarette into one of the glasses, and the whole room went up in flames.

Percy passed the Statues of various gods and Hero's favored by Hades, and smiled. He had been the one to suggest the statues, and Persephone was happy her garden could have life-sized statues. Percy had even carved some of them himself.

He walked through the underworld, humming quietly, and dancing around, laughing at himself. He spotted a speck of emerald zipping through the air, and whistled.

He had been in a Vegas gift shop once, and found an exotic little horned owl made of pure emerald. Being the son of Hades, he had no trouble buying the little cutie, and took him home. On the way to the palace, (Percy preferred to take the long way home most times) he ran into Hecate in her crone form. Now, he had just expected to set the little guy on his desk, (which he later found out was a girl) but the Goddess of Magic had other plans. She cast a spell, and animated the owl, which was no more than five inches tall, and it began flapping its wings and screeching.

He had named her Andromache, after Hectors of Troy's wife. She was a fancy flyer, and did a lot of things to help out with things Percy couldn't do himself. She was smart too, and like Laelaps, could understand English, Greek and was fluent in Latin (which she was very fond of rubbing in Percy's face) who knew an owl could be so honory at times? She could also write, by clutching a pencil or pen in her claws, and scratching a message on a paper. Owls were great messengers.

Andromache (or Andie, as Percy was fond of calling her) landed on Percy's forearm, and nipped at him lovingly. He smiled and continued on. He was about a mile from the Elysian Fields when he stopped short.

Standing in front of him was a black haired guy, about the age of sixteen, with warm brown eyes and a playful smile. He was beautiful, with a gorgeous face, light skin, and not-too thick not-too thin body, with a slight six pack. He wore black jeans, with a dark purple shirt, and grey converse shoes. He had an eighteen inch dagger strapped to his side, with a black leather grip, and black metal scabbard.

Percy immediately knew he was in serious trouble, because he now knew what Eros had meant about there being another part to the blessing.

The guy steeped forward, and stuck out his hand. Percy knew the words he was going to say before they left those perfectly pink lips. Percy bit his lip as the man came closer.

"Hey. I'm Asher Freestone, Son of Eros."

**AN:**** Sorry this took so long to write, life is not good right now. -_- It also might take a few more days to get the next one up. I think you guys have a good idea what happens next, so don't be mad at me! It's all part of the big picture! :O **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Not-so-Strategic Strategies, and Working Magic

**AN: Okay, so…your mad. I know this, because I'm mad too. I disappeared suddenly. I lost my damn USB somewhere in my junkyard of a room, and that had the chapters I was planning to put up a month ago. That sucks. But, this chapter, and the one after (chapter 8) was originally one huge chapter, but I broke it down into two…**

**Anyway, I am devastated with myself to say this but…..Luke wont be coming in until three chapters after this one. He'll come in on chapter 10, sorry, but I've got everything planned out now. **

**Bye now XD**

The Lord of the Dead flinched as Percy flew past his sight and into a golden rose bush. He had to stop himself from jumping from his spot at the top of the stone steps and vaporizing the damned Hydra as it charged at his son. Now Percy could've handled a normal Hydra easy, but this one had fifteen heads, and three times the fire. Why? Because the foolish teen insisted on challenging himself nearly every hour he was awake! That's why!

Hades scowled. _No_…..

_I take that back,_ Hades thought and smiled slightly as Percy dodged a blast of raging fire. _He could never be a fool._

Percy was suddenly airborne as the Hydra took his leg into one of its seven remaining mouths, and threw him a good twenty feet into a flaming patch of flowers. Hades clenched his teeth.

But Percy merely snarled an animalistic sound, and slapped the flames from his clothes and hair. His hair was so black, the charred strands didn't stand out in any way. He grabbed a spear, which had been his weapon at the beginning of the fight. He swung around the blackened, cracked piece of wood and then paused, seemingly thinking for a moment. After about two seconds, he tossed it aside, and with anger in his eyes and a smirk on his face, he launched himself strait at the Hydra.

Hades laughed loudly at the shocked faces of the Hydra, and the triumphant, yet maniacal grin on his sons face as he wrestled with the heads. He heard a musical giggle behind him, and turned to meet the sparkling emerald eyes of his queen. He grinned and took Persephone's hand as she made her way to his spot on the steps.

"I've always admired that about him." She said with a giggle in her voice. "He's so unpredictable he scares whatever he's fighting." These words rang true as the Hydra tried uselessly to free itself from Percy's grasp on its upper body. Percy turned the fire-breathing head on another of its heads, and it was charred to a stump.

"His randomness adds to his advantage." Hades agreed. Percy burned down two more heads with his hold on the one fire-breathing head and Hades smiled.

"I blame you." Persephone looked down at Laelaps, who had stayed silent most of the fight. He gave a breathy series of barks that was obviously laughter, and looked up at the Goddess of Spring, who had addressed him. He stood up proudly and barked once. Persephone laughed and petted the sleek, grey coat of fur on his head, only two feet shorter than her six foot height.

They watched as Percy burned the last remaining Hydra head, and held the last one down with his legs. He pulled up his pants leg, and revealed a strap of black leather, with many tiny Stygian Iron vials. He took one off a holder, barely the size of a quarter, and about a half inch thick in a crystal shape. He unscrewed it, and grabbed Anaklusmos from his pocket. He uncapped it, and it grew to its natural length in deadly Celestial Bronze.

He chopped off the last squirming head and poured the green liquid from the vial onto the stump of a head. It stopped reforming immediately, and instead set on fire. The green flames grew three feet tall, and engulfed the entire body, just after Percy let it free from his grasp.

Then Percy stood and grinned at his father and third mother figure, who simply grinned and smiled back. Laelaps on the other hand, bounded down the steps and knocked him over again, liking the green monster blood off of his face and arms. Percy laughed. Laelaps was born with immunity to most types of venom or acids in the Underworld and on earth. He also had high pain tolerance, and accelerated healing.

Percy on the other hand, wasn't born with such abilities, but Hades was no fool. The worst venoms and acidic substances in the universe came from the Underworld, and he knew when he finally let his boy go free, there would be monstrosities out to get him. So he immunized Percy to all harmful Underworld substances. He, of course, asked Sally first, who smacked him upside the head for having to ask her first.

_Women_….

He had immunized himself to most venoms on earth. He did this by choosing a venom, and then ever so slowly, injecting himself with it. Every week he would inject miniscule amounts into his system, getting used to it, before adding more. Sally had been furious when she found out.

He also had high pain tolerance. This was because every week or so he would grab a branch, set it on fire, and let the flames lick at his arms, legs and face for a while. He was already protected from fire by his genetic heritage, his biological father being the God of the Seas and all, so he held the flames everywhere for about three minutes. It took five minutes for his skin to turn a bright red, and seven to start smoking. It hurt like a bitch of course, but he estimated that he could withstand about eight to ten minutes of pure flame engulfing his body before he died. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

He hadn't tried lava yet, and honestly didn't want to. There were _some_ things that were extreme even to him.

His train of thought was suddenly led off course when he looked up to see the beautiful, smiling face of Hecate.

"Perseus" she greeted and held a hand out to him. He took it smiling, and his cuts and bruises healed at her touch. She was about twenty, her hair was chocolate colored and spilling from her head in loose curls, and her eyes were a radiant dark blue. Around her shoulders hung a burgundy cloak, and under that, a flowy emerald dress that shimmered different shades as she moved and bare feet. She was in her maiden form.

"Hecate" he said and bowed his head slightly. She laughed a free laugh that was almost the essence of joy itself, and turned towards Hades.

"May I steal your son for a hour or two?" she smiled.

"He is yours as well, Hecate." Hades smiled and raised a hand in a farewell gesture. "Though he's mine more than yours." He muttered under his breath, and Hecate's eyes snapped to the Lord of the Underworlds retreating form, glaring playfully.

Uh-oh, Percy thought and laughed lightly. They had gotten into this a few years back; Sally, Hades, Persephone, Hecate, and Demeter all arguing over who had a claim over him the most. It wasn't a serious fight of course, but it was during a meeting, and there had been wine splattering and wheat throwing.

"Come now Percy, we must be going quickly." She moved with the grace of a huntress and the speed of molasses through the dark woods surrounding the palace, to the River Styx. There was a small boat, barely big enough to void being called a canoe and stepped inside.

"Grab the oar, _mijo, _steady now…" Percy did as instructed and marveled over the fact that Hecate seemed to know every language in existence. She spoke a different one (or sometimes only a single word) every time he saw her. Not surprising for a Goddess of course, but still…..

They glided across the water smoothly, dodging broken toys, diplomas, and other human objects floating in the currents. Up ahead, Percy could see the side of a cliff, and smiled as the smell of dirt and rock hit him.

He steered them over to the side, and they got off, after Percy pulled the boat ashore. Hecate led him through an opening in the cliff, and through a few narrow, natural tunnels, before they came to a seemingly normal stone wall. She touched the side of the cliff, and it shattered like glass, revealing a stairway spiraling upwards. She stepped over the stone shards, and Percy saw a sapphire blue torch igniting farther up the passage. She beckoned Percy over.

Percy stepped over the shards and started up the staircase. When he looked back, the last shard was just fitting into place, sealing the wall again. He followed Hecate up the stairs, and grabbed the torch to light their way. It wasn't often Hecate let another hold one of her sacred torches, and Percy felt warmth spread through his body.

They walked for about two minutes in the familiar caves, the stairs smoothing into a walkway and slowly escalading upward. They came to a dead end. Hecate pulled out a silver pentagram necklace from around her neck, an identical twin the chain necklace Percy wore, and brushed some dirt from the low ceiling.

The dirt gave away easily, like powder, and she blew on it to reveal a pentagram engraved into hard stone. She unclasped her pentagram from her chain necklace swiftly and fit it into the stone. The stone ceiling slid over, and a ramp slid out of the wall. They walked up, and as soon as they set foot out of the cave it sealed itself.

They were in a large room, still in the caves, but cool wind blew through, and the natural scent of rock and dirt, and greenery met their senses. Though it was rock, green grass and flowers, and plants grew everywhere. Vines decorated the walls, and glowing moss lit the ceiling.

She let her cloak fall off her shoulders, and hung it on a pair of deer antlers sticking out of the wall. She grabbed a perfectly white, swirled and sharpened ivory stick, and pulled her hair into a bun. A smile lit up her young face, and a something sparked in her eyes.

"Come now Perseus. We have business to attend to." She smiled again, and Percy couldn't help the large smile from stretching across his face.

"Si mama."

The best part of the next few hours that passed was spent sorting herbs, and stirring a cauldron over a small fire. Sometimes they would get into small, playful arguments about silly things.

"I said a _few drops_ of tulip extract mijo, not a whole gallon!" Hecate laughed at the look on Percy's face, and he had to laugh too.

"That was barely a teaspoon!"

"A teaspoon is still more than tree drops!" she snatched the vial away from him, and he pursed his lips in a funny way that made Hecate laugh a little harder.

"I can do it myself! Go and tend to your four-o-clocks!" He grinned and slipped over a piece of parchment that had been strewn across the floor.

"Oomph!" he landed with a dull thud, and got up just as quickly. An owl shrieked a high pitched, sweet sound and he smiled. Not a moment later, he saw Andy fly in from the entrance of the cave. Her emerald wings glittered and sparkled in the light of the moss.

She landed on his shoulder, and nuzzled up to his ear affectionately. Hecate grinned and held out her arm. Andy flew onto it in a heartbeat and hooted, delighted to see her creator. Hecate motioned to the wooden table across the room, and Andy flew over eagerly. Hecate searched around on her stone shelves, and grabbed a clear liquid in a bottle. She grabbed a rag, went over to Andy, and poured a small amount on her, before rubbing it around her small body.

"What's that?" Percy asked as he stirred a tablespoon of Celestial Bronze dust and a cup of flaming water from the River Phlegethon into one cauldron, and a FEW DROPS of rose pollen and crushed pear pits into another.

"Polish of course" she said, and blew on small emerald owl. "and some extra protection..you can never be too safe."

"And what exactly are we making with these concoctions?" Percy asked, and peered into the boiling cauldrons. They were four in all, and the cauldrons varied in sizes. They were black, red, grey, and green. "Patience my love." she smiled over her shoulder. "All great things go to those who wait." And that was the end of that conversation until Andy had left and the boiling water had cooled a little.

Hecate levitated the cauldrons, grabbed a bag of herbs and extracts, and certain materials, and led them out of the caves (finally) and into the open, where they could see the Fields of Asphodel in the distance, and the palace of the king. Or In other words, Percy's father.

They came to a small pond, and Hecate set down the cauldrons beside it. It was clear, and Percy could see perfectly green grass and flat stones at the bottom, about five feet down. She lied out the contents of her bag, and instructed Percy to pour the small, black colored liquid into the pond. He took the hot metal of the cauldron's sides in his hands, taking no notice of the burning sensation in his hands, and poured the liquid into the pond. It looked like a waterfall of liquidized shadows as it went in, but as soon as it went in, the shadows disappeared. His eyebrows drew together, and he looked closer in disbelief, then to his mother for guidance. She seemed to be having no trouble seeing whatever he wasn't, and she smiled at his confusion.

"I can't see anything." He stated simply and looked back to the pond.

"Maybe your eyes are getting in the way." She said, and Percy bit his lip. He knew what she meant, and he closed his eyes. Instead of focusing on the color, the way it looked, he focused hard on what he heard, smelled, and felt.

He could smell nothing, but he felt tiny vibrations in the ground under his body. He set his hands on either side of him. The vibrations were so tiny in fact, that no one who didn't know what to look for would surely not notice. He felt tension in the air, like when the gods were to make a judgment on him, and decide his fate all those years ago. It was like electricity, static thickening the air. You could cut it with a knife. A vibration stronger than the previous ones was sent through the ground, and to his palms and fingertips, like a single heartbeat. A ripple.

His eyes snapped open.

Inside the pond, a bit of color swirled and formed slowly. At first it looked like a rose, then a sphere, then a smoothed out cylinder. More heartbeats. More ripples. Another rose formed, and another, and another, and soon the whole pond was black again, and something was rising.

A horse rose from the pond. No, not a horse, a Pegasus. It was beautiful. At least in Percy's eyes, and obviously in Hecate's as well, from the look of awe and admiration on her face. It waded out of the pond, and started to shake the remaining water off of itself.

It was pure black, with grey eyes, and large, raven black wings, which created a strong wind as it shook the water off. It was only when the horse stopped shaking that Percy seen its fiery red mane. The tips of its feathers also burned red. It had Celestial Bronze hooves, and spikes along its head.

Another demon horse rose from the pond and blew red flames from its mouth….could these horses be anymore awesome?

One after another, more horses rose from the pond, and when the water cleared, there was thirteen total. Hecate smiled, and mentioned to the next cauldron.

The grey mixture resembled a pot of smoke, and when Percy poured it in, after a minute or two Grey horses with leathery bat wings emerged. The green created spotted pegasi in various colors, and the scent of fresh grass. Hecate bottled up the red liquid, before setting it aside. The green mix made sandy and chocolate colored pegasi with diamond, emerald, gold, silver and ruby hooves.

Once they had all emerged, Percy noticed they were all quite friendly. He soon realized all except three were female. Then he was surprised by and ability he didn't know he had. He didn't want to get too close to the fiery manes of the black pegasi, (he knew it wasn't normal fire)and was steering clear from them, until a gentle female voice spoke in his mind.

'_No need to fear my flames son of the sea god. They bow to my will rather than the laws of human science.' _A black pegasus with flames as its mane and wings.

"That's comforting." Percy said, and grinned a little. She had probably picked up on his thoughts too.

'_Our loyalty lies with Lord Poseidon, and Pegasus. I wouldn't want to bruise our honor by frightening away a Son of Poseidon with unfriendliness.'_

He liked these groups of pegasi already.

"Now how did you manage to create pegasi?" Percy asked Hecate, puzzled. "I thought they were born from Pegasus, when he mates with ordinary horses.

"I may have created them, but not without Pegasus' blessing of course." She smiled, and held up pouch from her bag. When Percy looked inside, there were strands of beautifully white strands that were obviously hair.

"Pegasus let you take his hair?" the teen asked in disbelief.

"A small section, yes" Hecate smiled warmly. "It grew back longer the moment I cut it off, you see, but he wasn't worried about uneven lengths. He didn't want any descendants of his, created or not to be trained and used for evil. I promised him that wasn't the case."

"You used this to create them?" he asked, and gave the pouch back, still not believing his own ears.

"Yes, lovely"

"That's….unbelievable." Percy laughed, and then in an envious tone said "I wish I was born with magic." He grimaced.

"Oh my dear" Hecate shook her head and smiled. "Everyone is born with magic, and everyone is born with potential."

He turned to face her. She was smiling at him in a way that told of her thousands of years worth of knowledge and wisdom.

"That's something I figured out long ago. You remember Artemis and her hunters? Most of them are human, young human girls at that. Still, she saw great potential in them." Hecate smiled kindly and took Percy's hand.

"But the thing is about humans...is that most don't bother anymore. Back in ancient times, magic was a part of everyday activities. It was not different from religion." She had a serene look on her face.

"Everyone is born with magic, and everyone is born with potential. But you have to have the wisdom to use your potential, and then have your potential to use magic. Magic is everywhere, in everything, even in the nonliving objects of the world." She looked at him intently.

"You had some influence over the magic used to create these beings." She gestured to the pegasi. "Now you need only learn how to control it."

He smiled, and shook his head. He turned to the pegasi.

"Who wants to be taken for a test flight?" Percy asked, and happy, delighted whinnies and neighs filled the air along with the mental shouts of the pegasi, and Percy laughed.

**AN: So…hmmm. Not much to say I guess, except you guys have been CAUGHT! XD I'm a dumbass, I kept wondering why I wasn't getting favorite, cause my inbox is always empty, then I look in my other email, which I created for this reason, and HOLY HECATE it was like…345 favorites and people following the story and that's awesome for me. I didn't think I was the best writer.**

**So, bottom line, I know your there guys : / and it bugs me that there are hundreds of you reading this, and probably a lot more without accounts, and I only have twenty reviews. I'm not demanding, so I'll update when I can anyway, but PLEASE review. Its fun hearing from you. ^^**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Feeling of Love

**AN: The countdown begins! Two one chapter to go, and then LUKE! :D Im not so sure about this chapter…Nothing left to say really XD Hope you read the last authors notes! **

Percy pulled his boat ashore from the Styx, and jogged away, heading home. He was so close to the palace, he couldn't see the gardens through the trees. But he passed a few large boulders, and couldn't resist climbing them.

He climbed up the boulders, and enjoyed the feeling of his muscles stretching, and wind in his hair. When he reached the top, twenty feet up, he sighed happily, and looked around the gardens. His smile quickly disappeared when he saw a dark figure moving behind a line of bushes. Normally, he wouldn't have worried, his parents being immortal gods and all, but that was Laelaps' favorite place to play.

He jumped off the boulder, to the ground, twenty feet down. About seven feet before he hit the ground, he spun in mid-air, and landed in a roll, coming up on his feet. He took off in a run, racing through the gardens. Even in his boots, he'd had training that taught him to move quickly and silently. The green walls blurred around him, and he dropped into a crouch, a foot from an entrance to one of the rooms. He didn't need to see the person, or monster to know it was there…not anymore.

It was human, or at least half-human. It smelled like the land of the living. He picked it up so easily because the living…at least most of the living didn't belong there. That particular smell didn't belong there. He felt and heard footsteps move closer to the entrance, and tensed.

Just as the figure emerged, he launched himself at the person, without even bothering himself to look first. In return, he received a yelp, and a surprised punch to the mouth. None the matter, it was attack first and interrogate later. The flesh that the intruder's fist had come in contact with numbed after a second or two of pain. He pushed the unknown being to the ground, and pinned his shoulders.

Sea green, intelligent eyes stared into warm chocolate eyes, equally as intelligent. The boy under him was tall, lean, light skinned and raven haired.

Percy gasped and released his hold. He got to his feet blushing and frowning, ashamed of himself. He held out his hand, and the teen on the ground grabbed it, and pulled himself up.

Asher.

The last he heard from him, he had been on earth, doing an odd job for his dad. He had left with a goodbye hug, and smiled an amused grin thinking about what he was going to do.

"Percy!"Asher hugged him as if he hadn't just tackled him and knocked him to the ground."I didn't hurt you too much with my punch did I?" he asked, concerned. Percy just stared, then shook himself out of it and hugged his friend back. He smiled.

"No, but I must say you have a wicked right hook." He pulled away, and Asher frowned, touching Percy's face.

"Awww, it bruising." Asher frowned, and Percy didn't catch himself until after he thought that Asher looked so cute when he pouted.

"I'm fine." Percy smiled, and pulled a small metal bottle from his pocket, which he unscrewed and sipped from. He felt a warm feeling run through his body, and the spot where he had been hit tingled and he could feel the area healing. The taste of blue chocolate chip cookies, and hot coco filled his mouth, simply because Sally always had the cookies for him when he visited, and because Persephone used to make him hot coco when she told him ancient stories.

Ambrosia to him tasted like herbal tea, and Italian salad, two things that wouldn't go well together, yet they did perfectly when it was ambrosia. This was because Hecate always made him tea from several herbs, to cure his sickness, and such, and Hades was fond of making Italian salad for Percy as an easy and delicious meal.

"See? Better already." He said, and Asher smiled again.

"Good."

Percy smiled back, and was reminded that Asher was Eros' son. The thought just struck him like a ton of bricks, for no reason at all. Asher was…beautiful like his dad, and he was an awesome archer, and had the same hair…but what was really alike about the two?

Asher understood how love worked. He had that charm to him, which could get any girl, or guy for that matter, whenever he wanted. He just chose not to, because, on account of his father, he knew what it felt like to be deprived of love. Looks weren't everything. Vanity was stupid. Judgment was cruel. The love between two individuals expressed by words, and feelings, and thoughts was true love. Sometimes you didn't need any physical contact.

Eros and Asher both would tell you that's the purest kind of love.

Then again, so would Hecate, and Athena and Hestia. Aphrodite would laugh, and then strike you down for suggesting such a thing. Eros' situation was a little different from the rest of them.

Asher had been created from the divine thoughts of his father. He was born from pure thought. Eros had no father, so…why did his child need a mother? He could give life himself, and so he did.

Hecate also gave life. She didn't give birth to her children, but from the moment they _were_ born on earth, they were hers. She didn't need to give birth to give life. She was a symbol of feminine freedom. She didn't need a husband to become great. She certainly didn't need protection. She wouldn't let men have a hold over her. She would remain forever clean and pure from them. She could mother a child from thought, and as far as she was concerned, that was as natural a way to give birth as any.

Athena, another maiden goddess, swore on her own birth she wouldn't marry, and remain a virgin forever. She did her births similarly. So did Hestia, though Hestia had never had any children of her own.

"Walk with me?" Percy only smiled back, and then the two were walking, and talking about Asher's time away from the Underworld. Apparently, Eros and Aphrodite had had a pretty big argument, and Aphrodite ordered one of her other children to steal his quiver of love arrows from him in his sleep. When she got them, she first planned to blackmail him into apologizing, but then decided she would make trouble for her son instead, and tossed them from her temple into the streets of New York. Some people passing by the Empire State Building had gotten shot, and started to molest people in the streets. Eros needed help with them, while he dealed with his mother, so naturally, Asher had came to the rescue.

"There were fifteen of them who got shot. So I had to track down fifteen lovesick peds. I even had to break into a jail." He whined, and Percy laughed.

"How did you…fix them?" He laughed at his own choice of words.

"I 'fixed' them by spiking their drinks and food with some black stuff that my dad calls the 'antidote' to his arrows. I don't even know really." He shrugged.

"Awesome." Percy grinned, and drug his feet noisily, that seemed to be for no apparent reason to Asher, and he just gave a raise of his eyebrows. Then he shook his head, and smiled.

"I brought you something." Asher continued, and Percy scowled, trying to turn it into a smile.

"You didn't need to do that Ash." It wasn't needed, he'd been to New York a thousand times, and he didn't want his fried using his money on him. Still, it was a nice gesture.

"Yeah I did." The older teen smiled again, and pulled a piece of grey cloth from one of the many pockets on his army jacket. He gave it to Percy, and Percy took it, smiling.

When he unfolded it, he grinned and threw an arm around Asher, laughing. The shirt showed a picture of the grim reaper, holding a sickle, and reaching out with a skeletal hand. It had always amused Percy to know that the grim reaper scared some people, because those myths were inspired by Hades and Hecate,

"Thanks dude, it's great." He looked at Asher fully, who smiled at him warmly. Percy found himself thinking about how nice it felt to have Asher next to him. His whole being warmed Percy, and made him happy. He felt…._good_ when he was around Asher. _All_ he could feel was good when Asher was around. Percy couldn't thank Eros enough for sending him such a blessing.

"Thanks." Percy said again, and let go of his friend.

"No problem."

They walked through more of the garden, and came to a particularly big fountain, made of marble. They went and sat beside it, and discussed the idea of Percy leaving in a few months.

"So, you're _leaving_ me?" Asher said rather loudly, with enough drama to give Jim Carrey a run for his money. Percy couldn't help but laugh.

"No, I just-"

"I see the way it is!"

"It's just that-"

"You don't like me anymore!"

"That reminds me of something."

"What's that now?"

"I heard you were spreading rumors about me, saying I _like_ you! What the Hades is _that_ all about? Get your damn facts right!"

Asher gasped, and got up and started to speed walk away like a drama queen. Percy grinned, so very amused by their random roll playing, and went after Asher, who was half way across the insanely huge fountain.

"Wait!" He grabbed his wrist, and when Asher tried to pull away, Percy lost his balance, and tripped over a fallen crystal flower. He fell toward the fountain, and Asher tried to grab him, but instead they turned, and Percy pushed Asher into the fountain along with him.

Percy came up sputtering water, and curses, and pulled Asher up from under him by his shirt collar. Asher was laughing insanely, and Percy's jaw dropped. He blushed, and opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could utter "sorry."

Asher laughed, and grabbed Percy's wrists, breathing deeply, still breathless from the coolness of the water and suddenness of the fall. "Sorry? What's there to be sorry for?"

"I knocked you into the water." Percy's cheeks were a cherry red, and he was suddenly _very_ aware of the position they were in. He must've not noticed in his shock.

He was sitting on Asher, straddling his waist, and hanging onto his friend's collar with shaking fingers. Asher seemed to realize this too, and quieted. When Percy looked up to Asher's face, he was surprised to see him blushing a delicate pink as well.

Percy looked back on everything that they had been through in the last two months since they had met. In the first week, Asher had saved Percy from falling debris in the Fields of Punishment. Percy had told him everything about his life, and vice versa. Asher knew Percy just as good as any of his parents. He talked with him every day, and was always willing to listen to anything Percy had to say. He comforted him when he was down, and always had a nice word to say. He was intelligent and funny and kind, and sweet, and…so right. So right….

Percy broke out of his trance, and stared at his best friend who stared right back. Asher slowly leaned forward, and stopped a centimeter fro Percy's lips. It was his choice.

He had been born for Percy. Weather Percy wanted it or now, he owned so many things about him that he almost owned Asher himself. So far he had been a best friend. Maybe Percy wanted something more now. It was his choice.

Percy kissed his best friend, and it felt so good it hurt. Asher kissed back, gently and hesitantly at first. It was slow and filled with love, love finally more than friendship. Asher's lips were hot against Percy's, and they pulled away slowly to look each other in the eyes.

Anyone before their time, who said it wasn't possible for a single kiss to change everything, was a fool. A poor fool. Everything seemed to shift, and the emotion that passed between them blew the couple away.

Asher grabbed Percy's hips for stability, and Percy's long fingers tugged pleasantly at the older teens midnight colored hair. Percy's lips came down on Asher's for the second time, more needily, and passionately.

Their lips moved in perfect sync, and with more pressure. So far it was all about feeling. It was the feeling of finally not being alone. It felt like you had someone to count on, and someone to care for you. It felt like as long as you were with your significant other, nothing could go wrong. It felt like a missing piece to the jigsaw had been fitted into place.

They felt the connection before, just not this strongly. It was the feeling of love. When they finally did pull apart, they stared and smiled at each other, each studying the others face up close for the first time. In that moment, Percy was reminded that his home wasn't simply a house (or palace) where he lived. Home was the presence of whatever he felt love for.

Sally was home. Hades was home. Hecate was home. Persephone was home. Eros was home. Laelaps was home. Andromeda was home. The Underworld was home. He looked at Asher's chocolate eyes, filled with love and adoration and had only one thought.

Once again, he was home.

**AN: Drop me peeps! I know your there, reading this, so **_**please **_**leave a review and tell me what you think…..PLEASE. **

**BTW, I'll try to have another chapter up as soon as possible. Some of you may think I've abandoned this story, because that's how some people are, but no, I haven't. I won't…ever. I know I've been MIA and all, but….dang, I lost my USB and that had the chapters I was gonna update about a month ago. So…yeah. That really sucked : / **

**And don't hate me! Dx Haha, its all thought out now. I've had ages to think about the plot now. Percy will be with Luke, but be patient! **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Power of the Seas

**AN: Sorry for the long wait guys, BTW Merry Late Christmas! :D Love you all! This is sort of an action chapter, with a little fluff….haha that sounded funny ^^ Here's chapter 9! *applauding from nowhere***

**Enjoy**

Percy walked through the forges of his _other_ father's undersea palace, looking for Tyson. Tyson was a young Cyclops who Percy had found being chased through the underground tunnels of New York by a sphinx. So, after some time together, Tyson self-declared himself Percy's brother, and Percy only smiled, and accepted the bone-crushing hug with open arms.

Percy had been around the one eyed creatures for quite a few years now, and had no problem with having one….or a _hundred_ as brothers. He grinned. Poseidon was the god that fathered most Cyclops', and that meant that technically, he had about a hundred other half-brothers as well.

He only had one brother who didn't quite accept him…Triton, the immortal hybrid son of Amphitrite and Poseidon. Queen Amphitrite didn't particularly like him either, but hey, you can't choose your family. Well, she wasn't exactly family, and neither was Triton, but none of them wanted to see Poseidon unhappy or sad. They usually ignored him, not saying anything unless they were asked a question first. That's the way things worked in the palace, and there seemed to be a sort of silent agreement between the three of them.

Percy liked Persephone and Tyson better.

He passed a younger Cyclops with braided black hair, and a blue eye. He was pounding away at a red hot sword, making the edges finer and sharper. Not a hit with the hammer was off, and the blaze formed perfectly.

"Nice sword you made." Percy approved, and the Cyclops only smiled. Percy could tell he couldn't speak English, and he made it clear he was complimenting his craftsmanship before moving on. The Cyclops' were excellent at weapon making, and they always made more in case of an attack out of the blue…literally.

"PERCY!" He was suddenly falling, and he hit the floor with a thud, a young Cyclops clinging to him. He laughed, and hugged him back. "Hey big guy. I'm happy to see you too."

"You were gone long time." Tyson said sadly, and Percy smiled.

"Well I'm back now buddy, but I must ask you something."

"Course"

"Could you get off of me Tyce? You're kinda crushing the life out of me."Tyson grinned apologetically, and got up, then pulled Percy to his feet.

"Sorry brother." Was the short reply, and Percy laughed.

"It's okay. You didn't know any better." And it was true, he didn't know any better. He was a baby Cyclops. Poseidon had told Percy he was born only six years ago. Six years old, and he was 6'6, and _very_ tall compared to Percy's 5'11 height.

Tyson grinned crookedly, and showed Percy the Celestial Bronze sword he had made. It had the name "Tyson" engraved in the bottom corner.

"Sword!"Percy laughed.

"I can see that. Nice work Tyce."He inspected the blade closer. "Wow, really nice work. In fact, I can't see a flaw on it." Tyson must have been gifted. He had only been working at the forges for a few days, and he was already making weapons almost expertly. Percy was proud.

"Thanks brother."

Percy smiled, then made a face when one of the older Cyclops' told Tyson to get back to work in Ancient Greek. He didn't like anyone picking on Tyson, relative or not. He'd put a guy in the hospital for making Tyson cry when he wanted to attend school.

But the young Cyclops didn't seem bothered by this, and said a short goodbye, before hurrying off to his station.

Percy walked through the halls of the palace heading toward the throne room. He and his father were supposed to practice Percy's '_inherited_ gifts' as Poseidon so nicely put it (yeah, when Hades was standing right there) and he was nervous.

What if he couldn't do it because he didn't grow up with contact with the sea? What if he froze up because he saw a sea monster he'd never heard about? What if he got lost because he couldn't navigate well enough? What if Poseidon struck him down for not being good at anything?

Needless to say…Percy was panicking.

Of course, he knew it was just the fear talking. There wasn't a sea creature he hadn't learned about. He had perfect navigation of the sea, and could tell the exact coordinates. Poseidon loved Percy, and the day he struck down Percy was the day Lord Apollo settled down. Neither was likely to happen in the millennia to come.

He entered the throne room to find his father in an animate conversation with Amphitrite. Her smile melted right off, and she stood. No, she striated herself (she couldn't stand on account of her tail) and said a quick goodbye to her king.

"Queen Amphitrite" Percy acknowledged, and tried to smile, but it came out as a scowl. "Lovely as ever."

"Perseus." Was the curt reply, and she shot off into the distance.

"She'll warm up eventually." Poseidon's voice drifted to his ears, and Percy heartbeat picked up. His palms grew sweaty at the sight of pure energy bubbling the water around the trident at his father's side. He gulped.

"Hi dad." He said meekly, and Poseidon looked slightly surprised for a second.

"Perseus," he smiled. "We aren't scheduled for your lessons for another week." He stood. "Nonetheless, I'm happy to see you son."

"It had been a week, father." Percy said, confused.

"Has it already?" Poseidon looked at a huge stone calendar, and his eyes widened. "Oh it has," He looked downcast. "I'm sorry Percy, it's just that it gets so busy with the mer-people having their homes remodeled and traffic-"

"Its okay dad" Percy smiled awkwardly. "Really."

"Thanks son." Poseidon's eyes crinkled, and he gave Percy an apologetic smile.

"So what are we gonna do today, dad?" Percy asked, and the Sea God grinned.

"You'll see….you'll see…"

**Two Hours Later…**

Percy was violently knocked to the ground by the swirling mass of water, and the picked back up again. It was a good thing he could breathe in water, because if he couldn't, he'd have been drowned about an hour and a half ago.

The first half hour, Poseidon had only talked to Percy, telling him of the powers he possessed and how he was going to learn to use them. He had complete control over sea water, but slightly less over freshwater. There was water in the air as well, and to draw water from it as easy…but to create tornados or other things like it would take more effort. So far, Percy had practiced calming the tide, and enlarging and riding the waves. He learned how to draw water from the air around him, and create ice, steam, and mist or fog. He also learned to boil the water, dry it out, or make whirlpools.

Right now, Poseidon was creating a mini hurricane, and Percy was in the middle. He hadn't had to deal with tornados or hurricanes before, so he was inexperienced, and clumsy with it all. Percy was soaked to the bone (because he allowed it of course), sand stung his skin, and dirtied his clothes and hair. _Places_ itched that shouldn't be itching.

"The sea doesn't like to be restrained!" Poseidon yelled over the sound of whistling wind and waves hitting the sand. "Sometimes you have to find your grip, and pull the reins!"

Percy had just a second to take that in before he was thrown to the roaring waves. For the first time in his life, he was in the ocean, and didn't know which was up, or which way was down. He didn't even have time to get his bearings before he was sucked back up again. He felt the sand of the beach hit his arm, and with a tugging sensation at his gut, the mini hurricane vanished, and he fell ten feet and onto the ground.

The hit had left him breathless and disoriented, but his vision eventually cleared, and he saw it coming at him again. Only this time, he was ready. He did what felt most natural. He thrust his hand out, and the hurricane halted, then closed his hand in a fist, and it dissipated. His breathing hitched, and he stumbled around, until he felt dry sand crunch under his feet. He heard his sea-godly father laughing behind him.

Sigh.

"Come on, Perseus! There's much to be learned in little time." Poseidon said heartily, and Percy groaned, but got to his feet.

"Little time?" He asked. "We still have," He checked his waterproof wristwatch "five hours!"

"Five hours is five grains of sand in the Gobi Desert for all the things you have to learn today son! Come on now!" Percy scowled, but cracked his neck and stretched his sore muscles.

The Sea Gods words proved to be true. In an hour, Percy was creating, controlling and riding his own personal hurricanes. The next hour, he was making it storm, in a quarter-mile circle around him. The next hour he was cracking boulders the size of RV's by simply dousing them with water, and using the liquid to crush them in. The final hours, he was making the seawater make huge fists rising out of the water that copied the movement of his hands. He also practiced other formations.

"Time to leave?" Percy asked eagerly. It's not that he was overly eager to leave his biological father to return home to the Underworld, but he was brain-dead, and Hades was kind of possessive when it came to his son.

"I suppose I should leave before my brother has to come and get you." He smiled, and a proud fire burned in his eyes. "We wouldn't want all hell breaking loose." Percy laughed at that, and gave Poseidon a squeeze on the shoulder.

"We wouldn't want that." Poseidon saw the glint in his son's eyes when he said this, and laughed, though inside he felt a little uneasy.

"Years in the Underworld has given you a dark sense of humor, boy." Percy smiled.

"You could say that." He bent over to pick up the shoes he had taken off a few hours before. "Though I'd rather say that it runs in my f-" He caught himself. _Poseidon _is_ my family,_ he reminded himself. He already felt awful for having to leave Percy at such a young age, and Sally to the mercy of Gabe Ugliano. Percy wanted to kick himself for probably making him feel worse.

"It was nice to see you again, father." He smiled warmly, and that calmed Poseidon a little.

"It was such a pleasure seeing _you_ son." He smiled his eye crinkling smile, and Percy felt a warmth spread through his chest. The Poseidon touched Percy's forehead with his index finger, and Percy closed his eyes. He could still feel the swirl and pull of mass and matter shifting to the gods will, and he found himself lying on the rocky bank of the river Styx.

He looked over, and saw his boyfriend pulling up to the side, and steadying the boat against some boulders, before jogging up to him, and pulling him into a warm hug.

"I _missed_ you!" He said and Percy laughed, hugging him back.

"I missed you too hon." Percy said, and Asher pulled Percy in for a kiss. There were no further words spoken. Percy knew Asher _had_ missed him, and Asher knew how Percy had longed for him while he was away. The details and feelings were poured into the kiss. When you had this strong of a connection, sometimes words weren't needed.

"What happened while I was gone? Slow going?" Percy asked as he pulled back a little breathlessly. He and his lover walked hand in hand along the shore, back to the palace, taking their time

"Hmmm…" Asher thought for a while then scowled. "Thomas Jefferson and Minos got into it today. Now they aren't eligible to be judges for the dead for fifty years." Asher threw a stone into the river, and watched it skip and bounce off floating toys and car parts. "Nothing more exciting than two old men beating each other with parchment and feathers." Percy laughed, and Asher smiled at the sound.

"So, how did training with your dad go?" The older of the two asked, and Percy groaned and buried his face into the crook of Asher's neck.

"Mumfibul" Asher laughed.

"What was that?" Percy pulled back, and crossed his arms. He groaned and uncrossed them, letting them hang freely at his sides.

"Terrible." He sat down on the black sand, and lied back rather roughly. "I mean, my dad means the best, and I want to learn….he's a good teacher, but it doesn't feel…right." Percy threw a handful of sand into the river angrily. "Why doesn't it feel right? He's my biological father for Zeus' sake!"

'_Poseidon's sake'_ Asher corrected mentally, and sat next to his boyfriend, putting a comforting arm around him. "It doesn't feel right because the only father you ever knew was Hades….your not used to Poseidon yet. He probably uses different learning strategies and explanations too." Asher kissed the top of Percy's head. "You're probably not too comfortable with that either."

Percy shook his head, and leant against Asher. Percy had abandonment issues, and Asher knew it. He grew up in a small apartment with a horrible stepfather and a hard working mother up until he turned six. Sometimes he remembered those nights when he would stay up late, trying to comfort his mother and ease her worries. He lost count of how many times he'd said 'don't worry mama' and 'everything's gonna be okay' and 'I'm here mom'. Just thinking about it made him sad,, and he refused to think about it anymore.

"No….Poseidon is a good teacher. He was there in case I got hurt, and watched out for me, but…it's so different and I don't like it. It makes me feel…out of place." Percy frowned.

"I'm sorry Perce….it'll get better eventually." Asher held him close and Percy believed it. He believed everything Asher told him, because…well, he just knew things like that. He knew Asher wouldn't lie to him…he would rather be cast to Tartarus. They didn't believe in the "it's for your own good" excuse.

As they neared the Palace, they talked about Asher's recent visit to Paris. _The city of love_, Percy remembered Asher's term fondly. He'd promised to take Percy there one day, and they would stand on the top of the Eifel Tower. Percy smiled, because he knew his sweet boyfriend was telling the truth, and said he couldn't wait. Asher loved to spoil and wow Percy in every way he could, and Percy loved it, because he could see the happiness in Asher's eyes when he himself was happy.

When they reached his room, he realized for the first time how tired he was, physically and mentally. He needed sleep….the last thing he felt was Asher's soft lips on his face. The last thing he heard was Asher's soft, breathy voice. "_I love you. Sleep now._

**Two Days Later…**

Asher narrowed his eyes at the green-eyed warrior in front of him and slashed, but Percy was too quick for that. He darted out of the way by simply side stepping, and the sound of clashing metal filled the air. Percy thrust with Riptide, and Asher parried the attack easily. Each warrior was quick as a striking snake, as graceful as a racing cheetah, and it worked well to their advantage.

Percy thrust again, this time the strike came close to grazing his opponent right in the side, but Asher deflected it half an inch before it broke his skin. The raven haired teen pushed forward with his sword, and Percy fell back. Asher took the chance to jab and twist Riptide from Percy's hand, and made the gesture with his sword that would end the spar-the gesture that held the deadly Celestial bronze blade pointed at either the opponent's chest or neck. Sadly, the older teen made the mistake of letting the ache of his muscles slow him down, and as fast as a Black Mamba, Percy rolled out of the way, and kicked Asher hard behind the knee, causing him to fall. This time, the Son of Eros wasted no time listening to his body, begging for rest, and tackled Percy. They rolled down a steep hill, and when Asher landed on top of Percy, Percy raised his legs and threw him off, over his head.

Percy saw Asher unsheathe his stygian iron dagger from his belt from his peripheral vision, and rushed deeper into the woods, where the trees were thicker, he needed to climb. He stopped at a particularly thick oak, and yelped as the eighteen inch dagger went through the sleeve of his shirt, just above the shoulder, pinning him to the tree. He tried to pull it out, but it was in _at least_ two inches deep. Percy knew if Asher hadn't been so tired after three hours of training, he would have nailed him right in the shoulder, and ended the fight. Asher had an excellent aim, and a strong arm.

Percy instead, didn't waste his time any longer, and just ripped it right off, so his shirt now resembled a green toga.

"Damn it!" he heard Asher curse behind him, and smiled a little. He then pulled out the dagger, and threw it to the side. He and Asher went hand-to-hand.

Percy launched himself at Asher, and sent them both tumbling to the ground. He found that strategy to work very well on any opponent, they never expect it, though Asher should've on account of how many times he'd pulled that rick before. Asher head-butted Percy and when his grip loosened on his waist, he rolled over, so he was on top of Percy and pinned his arms above his head. He smirked down at him, still breathing raggedly. As if to add to his victory, he leant down and bit down lightly at Percy's neck, like a wolf does once it's won a brawl.

They rolled onto their backs, and rested for a while, before gathering their various weapons and supplies, and making their way back to the Underworld.

Percy sighed contently as he willed the water out of his shaggy hair, he was very uncomfortable getting into bed wet. He put on a grey long sleeved shirt, and a pair of black sweatpants. He walked out of the steamy bathroom, and over to his bed, where Asher lied, already asleep. He lied down next to him on the bed, and covered up with the comforter.

They had started going out about two months ago, obviously. But Percy still couldn't believe the luck he had. _The Fates must like me,_ he thought smiling. Eros hadn't created a child in centuries, but Asher Freestone was indeed the Son of Eros. There was no denying.

How? A miracle….the whole thing went something like this.

Eros had hinted that he had plans for Percy far before he was even born, and now Percy knew what that meant, because Asher was a year older than he was. After they had made it evident of their feelings for each other, and of their intentions, Hades had summoned Eros and demanded to know what kind of love spell he had sent his son with, naturally expecting any god to want to harm his child. Hades, in all the stress he was under, also asked how Eros could have a son in the first place, wasn't he supposed to remain pure instead of having children? Had he went against the demands of his mother?

No, Eros had simply given birth to Asher himself, from his divine thoughts. He had created Asher from pure love and thought and beauty, which was almost the very essence of Eros himself. This is how the god was created himself; Eros had no father, only a mother.

This is how Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Battle gave birth to her children. They were also created from pure thought. These children inherited traits from their parent. The Athena children had natural intelligence, and battle skills, and strategic ways of thinking, like their mother.

Hecate's children were also born this way, since Hecate swore to remain pure, and free from the control of man. Her children had inherited a way with magic, sorcery and darkness...they were independent. They were leaders, not followers. They weren't easily swayed, and had a strong will. Her children that she claimed upon their birth in the mortal world were no different.

Percy subconsciously snuggled closer to Asher.

So... like Eros, Asher was a loving, caring and considerate person, as well as a fine archer. He had natural beauty, and natural acceptance of love of any kind.

But there was a difference between the three. Athena's children were blessings bestowed upon the men she favored, her children normally grew to be great architects, artists, or soldiers. Hecate's children were blessings upon the mortal world itself, instead of any specific person, they usually grew up to be healers or travelers.

Asher had been born to be a companion to Percy Jackson, he had been born to become a hero. Apparently Eros had helped Percy out a lot: guiding him toward Los Angeles, making sure he found forests every day or two, and making sure to steer the more powerful monsters away from his direction.

Percy looked over at Asher sleeping soundly beside him in nothing but a pair of plaid pajama bottoms, and ran a hand over his slightly built chest and stomach. Percy's fingers ran farther down, to the waistband of his pants, and ran along the soft skin there.

Asher was meant to be anything to Percy, a brother, a friend, a best friend, a lover, a companion, a fellow warrior, anything that Percy needed.

Eros had taught Percy that love is everywhere, mother-son love, father-son love, romantic love, brotherly love, sisterly love, friendship love, and the list goes on.

Percy gazed at Asher's beautiful face, and sighed with sadness.

Eros taught Percy that the purest of love knows no boundaries, not even gender.

That's why Percy and Asher made a good team. Since the days after they had first met, they had been best friends, and the weeks after that, lovers, and they were okay with that...sort of. It was getting painful now. The thought of being apart when Percy left was depressing, and honestly a little scary. Neither wanted to be alone.

Percy allowed his fingers to venture further, slightly into the waistband of Asher's pants, and the skin felt even softer and smoother there, like warm silk...

"Having fun?" Asher chuckled sleepily.

**AN: I hope this is satisfying for you guys…the next one is like 5,000 and some words long. Its already finished, I just need to edit some things….you guys are gonna hate me next chapter ^^ sorry!**

**R E VI E W P L E A S E**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Force of Love

_**WARNING!**_

_**SLASH HATERS GO NO FURTHER!**_

**This chapter contains lemons! Not Luke/Percy lemons either, so don't be mad….alright be mad, but continue reading ^^ **

**AN: So I think I've made it very clear this story stands true to its rating. MATURE! Okay…yeah, haha, this is really long, but only because I promised Luke this chapter, and I had to put him in somehow -_- Without further ado here's chapter 10! xD**

Percy smiled at him. "Just a little." He said, and ran his hand back up is chest, to his face. Percy lightly traced the outline of his lips.

Asher pulled Percy on top of him, and buried his face in his neck. He kissed the skin there softly, a sweet gesture that made Percy smile. "I don't want you to go tomorrow." He stated simply, and Percy laughed a little.

"The school year ends tomorrow...Lord Zeus was kind enough to give me seven years before I had to leave." Percy's eyes closed as the raven haired teen under him bite down on his neck, not-lightly, probably leaving a mark.

"Lord Zeus needs to lighten up a little." Asher said, and Percy pulled away, before leaning down and kissing his lover lightly on the lips. Asher massaged his sides, and Percy made a muffled sound in the back of his throat as they deepened their kiss. Percy tangled his fingers in the soft midnight hair, and broke off, gasping. Percy pecked Asher's lips one more time, gazing into lovely chocolate eyes before kissing his way down his light skinned chest, pinching one of his nipples between his lips, and Asher caught his breath under him.

Percy got to the waistband of Asher's pants, and untied the cotton strings with his teeth. Percy kissed his way to Asher's thighs and teasingly kissed the prick presented before him, taking it in his hands, and gently stroking it up and down. Asher sat up a little to watch Percy as he smirked at him, then took him into his mouth all the way down to the base.

Asher shuddered and grasped the sheets under him in a tight grip. Percy hummed, and the vibrations drove the older one wild. He moaned loudly and bucked his hips slightly before he could stop himself, but Percy wasn't having it. He grabbed his lover's hips, and moved his head up and down the length of Asher's cock at a steadily increasing pace. He pulled back, and licked Asher from his base to the tip, lightly sucking at the sensitive skin there. The older teen's cock jumped, and he let out a mix between a cry and a strangled moan.

"Okay! Okay!" Asher nearly yelled, and pulled away from Percy because that uncontrollable panic that had started in his belly and groin told him he was about to come. He didn't want to yet, so he instead, just kissed Percy, tasting himself on the younger teen's lips and tongue. Percy smiled into the kiss, seeing the effect he had on the boy under him, and ran his hands over Asher's chest.

Asher flipped them over, so he was on top of Percy, and copied what the Son of Poseidon had previously done. Percy sat up and moaned as he watched the Son of Eros go down on him. Percy lied back, and enjoyed the light waves of pleasure running through his body. Asher pulled his head back, and kissed his way toward Percy's chest, while pumping Percy's throbbing hardness with one of his hands. The hot mess shivering on the bed known as Perseus Jackson was in ecstasy. His vision was dotted white...well, it was hard to see anything other than the lovely brown eyes looking up at him, urging him to come. But Percy didn't need any more influence than one look from those eyes to...to...

When Percy's breathing became labored, and his stomach and cock started to spasm, Asher knew he was about to come. He went back down, and took Percy's whole length into his mouth, going up and down a few times before pulling back. He licked the large cock presented in front of him, and then pumped it with is right hand while playing with the testicles hanging underneath and suckling on them. He heard Percy gasp.

"Ahhh!" Percy's body shook almost violently, and he clutched the bed, arching his back. His thick, warm load shot into Asher's mouth, and he took it in ease. He swallowed his mouthful of semen, savoring the salty, sea-watery taste. He took the member into his mouth again, and Percy bucked forward. _He's sensitive, _Asher realized, and chuckled softly, kissing his way back up to Percy's lips. Percy pouted at him, and Asher smiled a lazy grin at the boy under him. Percy leant up, and kissed him softly as he cooled down from his orgasm. It was Asher's turn to whimper now as Percy gently rolled them over, so he was on top

"My turn." Percy ground his middle against his loves, and was satisfied to hear a low throaty moan from the back of his throat.

Percy licked and suckled at the light skin where Asher's neck and shoulder met, surely leaving a nice reddish-blue mark. He massaged the older teens sides and stomach as he worked, feeling the muscles and soft skin. He bucked his hips forward and smiled when he felt Asher buck back. His magic was working. Percy bit down a fraction harder, just for a second, and it pushed Asher over the edge, and he was drowned in a sea of pleasure. Asher's breathing hitched, and he bucked into Percy's hand wildly, holding onto him for dear life. Life as no more at that moment as the waves of ecstasy washed over him...life was nothing...it was just him and Percy.

Percy kissed him, to keep the cute mewls and moans coming from his mouth to a minimum. Ghosts and shadows had a tendency to be nosey, and his father was _still_ quite protective of him.

Gradually, Asher calmed, and his breathing returned to normal. Percy went back down Asher's body, to his cock, and took the tip into his mouth, cleaning him. Percy made his way to the places where semen had spurted and licked off all the sticky, thick juices from his lover's body.

"Mmmm..." Asher rolled them over once more, and kissed Percy, pouring his heart into it. He turned Percy over and ran his fingers gently across his back, Percy shivered. Asher kissed the silvery scars along the younger boys back, and slowly, but surely went even lower. Percy sat up, and leaned back into Asher's arms, and they shared another kiss before he bent over on his hands and knees.

Asher spread the globes in front of him, and dabbed at Percy's entrance with his tongue, teasing him. He licked the entrance fully, and Percy moaned as Asher set to work on preparing him. Asher slid a finger into Percy. Percy moaned softly, as Asher pushed his finger in and out, and his breathing picked up soon after. Asher's single finger wasn't feeling large enough anymore. Asher added another finger, and Percy moaned again, this time, a little louder than before, but like the first, it became unsatisfying. He needed something b-

Percy gasped as Asher slipped a third finger into him, and moaned loudly. Asher smiled and pushed his fingers in hard and fast, causing the boy under him to cry out, and grip the silky sheets. He ran his other hand up and down Percy's thigh, and between his legs. He made a fist around Percy's pulsating hardness, and pumped and stroked until he felt warm, thick liquid run through his fingers. He smiled again, and watched his lover quiver under him. Percy was close. He stopped his ministrations, and Percy gave a huff of irritation. Asher chuckled softly, and faster than Arion, thrust his cock forward into the awaiting tightness of Percy's entrance.

"AH! Ooooohhhh...GODS Ash!" Percy half yelled out, and moaned. He threw his head back and nearly screamed in pleasure, letting the heavenly feelings Asher was creating for him take over.

The older teen smiled as his love made cute little sounds underneath him with every thrust. Asher's eyes were screwing closed with his own ecstasy. He grabbed Percy's hips, and drove in deeper, moaning and gasping loudly himself. He leant down to stroke Percy's face with one hand, and peppered his neck and back with soft kisses. Percy moaned appreciatively, it was almost a purr. He grabbed Asher's hand that was stroking his face, still slick with semen, and took a finger into his mouth, licking the sticky liquid off. It wasn't much, but it was erotic, and the feel of Percy's soft, moist tongue on his skin drove Asher wild.

Percy was on cloud nine. No, he was on cloud 10...11...he moaned loudly as Asher's hard member moved inside of him...rubbing against his prostate. "Mmmmmm..." He sucked on another one of Asher's fingers, tasting himself. Gods above he was big...

He knew he was about to come when he felt his prick jump. His lightly toned stomach started to spasm. His arms and legs shook. His entire body quivered with pleasure. "Ash...I'm gonna...I'm gonna ..." Percy seen dark spots behind his eyes.

Asher smiled impishly. "_Come_?" Percy's body wracked, but Asher held off his lovers high, torturing him. "Are you gonna _come_ for me sweetheart?" he purred, and nipped at Percy's neck. Percy's body spasmed again, and he whimpered.

"Ash, please!" Percy begged. The need to release was becoming overwhelming. He was starting to lose all coherent thought. The pleasure was becoming too much.

"I need to-" Percy cut off as Asher gave a hard thrust directly to his prostate.

"Come." Asher said, and it was more a command. Percy screamed and withered under him, bucking wildly into Asher's hand at the word, letting his orgasm take over him.

"Asher! _Oh, GODS_ Ash...oh my _gods_..." He collapsed onto the bed, still shaking and thrashing. Asher kept his orgasm going, letting Percy drown in waves of blinding pleasure. A minute or two later, after Asher nearly gave himself another orgasm just looking at Percy, he released him, and Percy stopped thrashing, and lie panting raggedly on the bed.

Asher smiled, and lied down next to his love. He looked at Percy, and stroked his cheek again, his flawless face. As a son of Eros, Asher had slight control over sexual desires, and he had simply held off Percy's orgasm for a little longer, made the feeling of being on the edge last a little longer for him. He was bad to do that, he smirked. He knew he shouldn't have, but he couldn't resist. He also made the orgasm ten times stronger than any normal one. Percy could also do this, but he did things his own way.

Asher would pay for that. He smirked wider. Percy would get back at him for that.

_He couldn't wait_.

Percy was just so cute, and he wanted him to feel _good_. Asher wanted to feel good for making Percy feel good. He would be losing him the next morning...and it wasn't something he looked forward to. He wanted to make this night rememberable.

Percy lifted his head and glared at the smirking teen next to him. "I hate you."

Asher laughed and smiled at Percy, pulling him close, and wrapping his arms around him. "You know you loved it." He grinned.

"Did not!" Percy said playfully, but in all honesty he couldn't be happier.

"Your mouth says no, but..." Asher looked down, and Percy blushed. He kissed Percy's cheek, feeling the growing warmth there.

"I love you." Percy said, and his cheeks turned a little redder, but his sea green eyes were sure and steady as they looked into Asher's warm brown ones. Orbs of strong crashing tides, and mighty, towering oak trees met gazes, and Asher's smile became soft. He kissed Percy on the lips lightly, and the love between the two was obvious. It would have been obvious to anyone looking if they hadn't been in the position they were in.

"I love you too."

They made love several times that night, switching positions, and shouting out curses and each other's names into the fields of the Underworld.

**The Next Morning...**

"Are you _sure_ you have everything?" Persephone asked for the ninth time, and Percy laughed.

"I'm sure, and I've looked over everything..." He saw his iPod on his bed, and smiled sheepishly as Persephone arched an elegant eyebrow at him.

"Really?"

He grinned and went to grab it. He slid it into the pocket of his dark jeans and held out his hands. "See? I'm all finished!"

"Really?" Persephone repeated and headed for his suitcase.

"Persephone, you don't have to-omph!" Persephone pushed him out of her way and Percy fell onto his bed. He scowled as she went through his backpack. His suitcases would arrive the moment he arrived, or so Hades had said with a grin that could shame the Cheshire cat.

"Sunscreen?" Persephone asked with a triumphant look on her face as she tucked a bottle of the stuff inside one of the many pockets of his bag.

"Uummm, why would I need sunscreen?" He asked, but smiled a little. It was sweet of her to be concerned.

"For protection against the son, silly." She scowled. "The sun is never kind to those who come from the land down under."

"Australia?" He asked, smiling, and she laughed.

"Just get everything in your bags Perseus." She started out of the room, but turned back. "Be careful on the way Percy," Persephone said with a slight frown "I don't want you running into trouble on your way to your first summer at camp."

"It'll be okay," Percy grin "I know how to take care of myself." She nodded, with a spark of pride in her eyes.

"I know you can. You've proven that every day since you arrived." She walked back over to where Percy was standing, smoothed his hair, the color of midnight, and subconsciously smiled. "You know, even if you're not Hades' son biologically, it's amazing how much you two are alike in appearances. It's even more amazing how much you're…_like_ him. If you told someone you were the son of Hades, no one would question that you are. "Her eyebrows drew together.

"You have the same black hair, same pale skin." She smiled then. "You even have some of the same facial structures. You have his nose…his shape of eyes, and jaw line."

She gave Percy a small grin. "You have the same dark sense of humor, the same laugh. You like the same things, share the same favorite foods and colors…you're both strong, and sweet and silly and gloomy all at the same time. You have wisdom, love, kindness and courage in your hearts." She smiled.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that all these years you guys are pulling a fast one on me, and it'll turn out you really _are_ Hades' son by flesh and blood." She touched his face.

"But Poseidon owns your eyes." Persephone said quietly, and she hadn't noticed before, but there were other colors too, specks of ocean blue and light grey, like the seas. Percy smiled, a fait twitch at the corner of his mouth, then it was gone.

"Persephone, I feel sad…" Percy said, and frowned.

"About what lovely?" She asked as she plucked a black tooth comb, from his bag and started to smooth it down forward.

"My dad..." he looked at her in the mirror as she moved into the bathroom. "My _other_ dad," he added. "Poseidon. You know, I've always known he was my biological father….but I wasn't really interested all to much, I mean I've got enough people claiming to be my parents as it is!" He grinned and Persephone laughed.

"That's only because we love you Percy." She smiled and so did Percy.

"I know that…and I love you all too, but back then I really didn't think Poseidon wanted anything to do with me either. I love the sea, and I feel at home there, but the sea is all we have in common. And, sometimes I still feel a tinge of guilt for hanging out with the god that left my mom in the hands of Smelly Gabe Ugliano. She was killed because of that! Because he left!" His frown deepened.

"But there's no denying that he loved her…that he still does….it's all so confusing….."

"Gods have to leave their children eventually Perseus, it would have violated some of the most absolute laws." Persephone put her hands on her step sons shoulders. Percy's eyes were glossy with sadness.

"Hades didn't leave me." He said quietly, and felt Persephone wrap her arms around him comfortingly, and he did take comfort in it. He turned and hugged her back. The warmth of her body, and the smell of flowers was reassuring. He knew, even though he wasn't as close to Persephone as he was to Sally or Hecate, she still loved him, and she wouldn't leave him either.

Persephone held Percy close, trying to soothe him of his sorrows. "Poseidon loves you Percy, though, dare I say it, no one can love you more than Hades and Sally…no perhaps Hecate and myself…but my point is that, your biological father does love you….." She sighed. She wasn't making things much better for the boy that was clinging to her waist for comfort. She felt her own eyes prickle with the threat of tears.

"We love you Percy. Hades loves you, Sally loves you, Hecate loves you, Asher loves you, Demeter loves you, Eros loves you, Laelaps and Andromeda love you…I love you as well. I don't think there has been a demigod loved and admired in several centuries." She felt a tear run down her cheek, and hit the shirt clothing Percy's arm.

Percy smiled, and looked at her. He didn't need to look up at her anymore. If anything, in a few months she would be looking up at his six foot two inch frame. He wiped the tears from her face, and hugged her again.

"Thank you Persephone. For everything." That's how Hades found the pair: holding each other tight, smiling gently in the dim light of Percy's room.

**An Hour Later….**

Percy and Asher sat holding hands under the deck of Charon's Ferry as they sailed across the Styx. It was filled with hundreds of Gold and Silver Drachma's and Percy knew there had to have been an enchantment on the boat to make it float. They could have, of course, just had Hades teleport them to the entrance, or some other form of godly travel, but they wanted more time together.

Nothing was really decided. They hadn't decided if they were going to keep up the relationship, or split for the moment. Both seemed impossible at the moment. When you loved someone like they did each other, it was impossible to 'just stay friends'. This bond between them was supposed to be a blessing… it felt so far from a blessing it was almost a curse to the couple.

"You promise to IM don't you?" Asher asked as his heartbeat picked up a notch.

"Of course I will, everyday." Percy reassured, and squeezed Asher's hand.

Asher let out a breath, and let himself fall back against Percy's chest. Percy massaged his shoulders and the older of the two stretched his legs and arms out in front of him.

"You promise not to get killed?" He asked and closed his eyes.

"Only if you promise me the same." Percy said and Asher smiled a little.

"Okay." He held onto Percy's black jean clad legs on either side of him, and smiled contently. "You promise to stay out of trouble?" he scooted away a little, and tilted his head back until he saw Percy's face upside down. A mischievous glint flashed in his eyes.

"Not in this lifetime." Percy replied and lent down, capturing Asher's lips with his own. Their lips moved in perfect synch with each others, and Asher moaned appreciatively as Percy's lips traveled farther down, to his neck. He sent gentle waves of pleasure to his lover with his mind, a trick he picked up from Eros, and evidently making the process more enjoyable.

Percy made quick work of the 'love bite' and sucked and nibbled until the skin there turned a blackish purple. All the while Asher gasped softly and bucked upward, arching his back. He mumbled incoherent words as Percy reached down and rubbed the bulge in his jeans. Percy slowly intensified the waves of ecstasy radiating from his mind, and applied more pressure to the hard member under his hand, all the while suckling on the skin of his loves neck. He slipped his hand inside Asher's jeans, and rubbed and pumped him gently. Thirty seconds later Asher came with a shuddering cry and a series of frantic bucks upward.

Percy felt Asher's warm spunk coat his hand and smiled, pulling his mouth away from the abused skin. Asher looked up at Percy, and he could see the lust in his eyes as well as love, and he was reminded of his and Persephone's talk earlier. He smiled.

They had about a half hour left until they reached the end of the Styx, (as said before they were taking the insanely long way) and the pair silently decided to sleep for a while on the way. They shared a fiery kiss before settling down atop the huge pile of Gold and Silver Drachma's, surprisingly comfortable, and fell asleep.

**Four Hours After…**

Percy skidded down a steep hill, and threw his backpack off to the side. He sat on a fallen tree trunk, and sighed, stretching his muscles and breathing deeply. He pulled a bottle of water from his bag, and drank until his throat stopped burning.

He was probably a mile and a half away from Camp Half-Blood, and he was stopping to rest. He had walked from the entrance in central Park Manhattan, a good fifteen miles away from where he was now. He could have paid for a taxi or bus to travel on, but he liked walking better, and it was more fun. He met a few horses on the way, grazing in the tall grasses and caught a ride with a tan one named Mohawk.

He didn't know exactly where he would stay when he got to the camp. He knew it had eleven cabins, for the eleven Olympians. He scowled. Apparently his father didn't count as anything in this camp. He was still sore over the fact that Hades was shunned and hated by the better part of gods, demigods, magical creatures, and he like.

He knew they had special cases, and it was run by Chiron, the wisest of the centaurs and teacher of many great hero's, and Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy.

He smiled slightly, picked up his empty bottle of water, and started walking again. Within twenty minutes, he had reached a big oak tree a little off the side of the road. In the distance, he seen a big red farmhouse, and grimaced. He started forward.

He could see clearer as he approached the farmhouse. It widened, and rose, and changed in color. It was four stories tall, with an attic, and wraparound porch. It was sky blue, and elegant in design. As he walked around to the other side, he saw someone peek out from behind the curtains of the attic's window. This, he didn't take notice of though, as he dodged a kick in the head by a flying basketball shoe. A boy with slightly curly dark hair, and brown eyes chased after them. He knocked Percy over in his haste, and started to apologize, but was distracted by the pair of shoes getting farther away.

Percy leapt up and bolted across the green grass. He caught one of the flying shoes in mid air, and walked back over the panting brunet. He smiled, and gave the shoe to the boy.

"The other one isn't going anywhere without that one." Percy said, and the shorter boy laughed lightly.

"Oh?" he asked, standing upright. "Oh well, it was rogue." He grinned. "I'm Travis by the way. Travis Stoll, Counselor of the Hermes cabin." He stuck out his hand, and Percy took it, smiling.

"Hermes huh? I thought I recognized you from somewhere. I'm Percy Jackson. I'm...new here." He said, and received a weird look for the Hermes comment, but friendly smile afterwards.

"Cool. I didn't think I knew you from anywhere. Maybe you're my half brother, I wouldn't be surprised. Hermes got it going on." He smiled an impish grin, and Percy laughed.

"I don't belong to Hermes Travis." Percy smiled, and went on before Travis could ask any questions. "But I'm not exactly ready to tell anyone yet…" he trailed off, and gave an apologetic look. Travis chewed his lip for a second, then smiled slightly and clapped Percy on the shoulder.

"It's cool….Uh, I kinda have to get the other shoe, and get it back to one of my brothers." He blushed slightly.

"Okay then." Percy smiled. "See to you later then."

"Bye Percy." He ran off to catch his other flying shoe. Percy smiled offhandedly and shook his head as he rounded the next corner of the gigantic house.

He came upon a….poker game? He recoiled, stumbled, and almost stepped off the porch. Poker was what Smelly Gabe would always play with his buddies, and Percy had hated it from then on.

"Are you alright my boy?" asked a rough but gentle voice, and Percy looked up. There was an old man, with a ragged beard and grey-brown hair in a wheel chair. He walked forward slowly, trying to keep the disgust off of his face, and attempting to smile.

"Chiron." He said, and held out his hand. His father had told him how he sometimes traveled to schools in order to keep track of certain demigods. When he did, he usually used a magical 'wheel chair' to compact his lower half. The old centaur looked startled.

"Hello. May I ask your name?" He asked politely, and Percy smiled, and relaxed when he saw it was pinochle. He had played it a lot as a child.

"My name is Percy Jackson sir-sirs." He looked at Dionysus. "Hello again Lord." He said. He looked and seen Chiron looking over him in curiosity now.

"Percy Jackson." Said the God of Wine, and he sighed as he saw he was going to lose in the game. He looked up. "We meet again."

Percy nodded, unsure of what to say, and Chiron looked over him once more, before turning to Dionysus. "You've met?"

"This surprises you?" The wine god retorted and started to set up for another game.

"Well, I can't imagine why." Chiron's eyebrows drew together. "You are indeed Poseidon's son?" he asked Percy, who nodded and sat as Dionysus gestured to one of the open seats.

"Good, good. I was informed of this a few weeks ago, as I was attending Yancy Academy. Though, they said there may be some complications with the cabins and other campers." He looked t Percy with a calculating gleam. "But you don't seem like the one to go around, causing trouble for fun." He said, and Percy laughed.

"No, I'm sure that's not what they meant." He said and lied down his winning hand. Dionysus grumbled "Bah!" and headed into the enormous house.

"Concerning the cabins? You would be in Cabin 12, Poseidon's cabin if you are his son, yes?" he was clearly, still confused. Percy looked around, to make sure no one was in hearing distance, and spoke in a low tone to the old centaur.

"I think what they meant by that is…I am Poseidon's son. But he left immediately after my birth, like any other god. The thing is, after my mother was murdered another god took me under his wing, and claimed me as his own." He said, and Chiron looked stunned if not a little sad.

"I'm sorry about your mother, Percy…but what did you mean another god took you in?" he stuttered a little at first, evidently not believing what he was hearing, but having to. Any fool could see it was the truth Percy was speaking.

"Before I came here, I usually visited earth maybe two times a month for the past nine years. My dad didn't want me to be out in the open, and out of his kingdom…out of his range of protection. He and a few others have taken care of me." Percy smiled, and rubbed the onyx skull ring his father had given him before he left.

"You've been living in Olympus for the past nine year?" Chiron was startled. "Why would the campers have any problems with a demigod fresh out of Olympus? There's no reason-"

"Who said I came from Olympus?" Percy asked, and smiled. He leant forward, and spoke softly "As for the trouble with the other campers," he looked around once more and leant even closer towards his soon-to-be teacher. The son of Hades had a slight angry glint in his eyes, as well as smug.

"I don't think the others would like the idea of a child of Hades hanging around too much." He said, and Chiron's mouth fell open. Dionysus chose to return that moment and plopped down in his chair with a grunt, a diet coke, and a magazine.

"A...my dear boy….." Chiron put a hand to his chest in shock. "A _child of Hades_?" He made the ancient Greek gesture for warding off evil, and Percy had to stop himself from sneering. This is why he didn't exactly want to come in the first place. He would be an outcast, and that part he actually didn't mind…he had never got along with the living as well as he did with the dead.

The part he did mind was that he would only be an outcast because his father was the Warden of the Dead. He didn't have anything against the Olympians…except that they shunned his dad for what he represented. It was…cruel in a way. Percy held his tongue.

So, he tried to explain to Chiron what his life had been like, how Hades was in fact _not_ evil and heartless, (at least not entirely) and the opportunities he had gotten by Hades 'adopting' him, and living in the Underworld. He also explained the situation with Poseidon as best as he could without going into too much detail.

"Well," Chiron sat back in his chair clumsily, and almost hurdled himself down the steps behind him. "This changed things…the Olympians must be informed at once…." I sounded like he was still trying to get a grasp on the information he'd just received.

"Seven years ago, the Olympians decided on my parentage and time of arrival at this camp," Percy said. "One thing I've learned is to never underestimate _any_ god….and I'm sure after all the trouble we gave them, they wouldn't have just forgotten it. In fact, Lord Dionysus was present to the meeting as well." He turned and grinned slightly at the God of Wine, who only scowled back."He voted for me to stay with my father."

"Mmm…I chose well, I see, at least you have some respect and sense of culture unlike some of the other brats I'm forced to babysit." He grumbled things like 'dreadful camp' and 'a hundred years…' and 'slashing prices' as he skimmed through a page of his magazine.

"Well," Chiron said for the second time, and stretched his arms out in front of him. "You will stay in the Hermes Cabin until further discussion. Now, I think a tour is in order." He smiled and rose from his wheelchair, revealing the body of a white stallion. Percy smiled back, though not hugely, and let the activities instructor lead him through the camp.

As they were passing the climbing wall, scorching and lit bright by lava, a girl a few years younger than Percy came jogging up to them.

"Chiron, I have the new blueprints for the storage sheds." She said, and held out a graphy-mathy-detaily sketch and mapping of a boat house net to a dock that gave Percy a headache. He opted to look along the forests instead.

"So soon?" Chiron asked, as he politely took the papers, and looked over them. "It was only yesterday that Charles' exploding arrow shot the gas tanks." Percy had to hold back a grin.

"Nyssa helped, she's brilliant with these things." The unknown girl said, and Chiron cleared his throat. "Annabeth my dear…I'm in the middle of giving a new camper a tour. Perhaps we can discuss this later?" he asked, and Percy felt a soft nudge on his shoulder.

"Yes?" he asked looking through the trees. It occurred to him that he should probably greet the girl, and he grimaced before looking her way. When he got a good look at her, he stopped dead in his tracks (no pun intended) and stared at the girl for a few moments.

Her hair curly and blonde, her skin slightly tanned. By the intelligent, calculating look in her eyes, and her proud poture, Percy knew she could only be a child of a certain wisdom goddess, not to mention her stormy grey eyes. Athena had to be her mother..he was sure of it.

But what as unsettling was that Percy knew the girl. He had seen her in a dream four years ago, when he was eleven. She had been about eight then…she looked about twelve now. He scowled, clear to anyone looking that he was frustrated with something.

"Hello?" said the girl. _Annabeth_. Percy smiled slightly, and extended his hand towards her.

"Hey…sorry about that. I'm Percy Jackson." She took his hand, and smiled back, evidently a little more comfortable now that he wasn't staring at her like she was a monster carcass.

"Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena." Percy grinned, and released her hand.

"I knew it." He said proud of his recognition skills, and she arched and eyebrow and chuckled softly.

"Excuse me?" Percy gave a slightly apologetic look.

"Sorry again…you look like your mother. It would be hard to believe if you were a child of anyone else."Per cy smiled, and Annabeth's eyes widened.

"You've met my mother? I've only met her a handful of times myself!" she said, stunned, and Percy laughed lightly.

"I've only met her twice…" Percy said distracted as he looked towards the forest. There were dryads wandering about, and a few satyrs. A small nymph who looked about thirteen years old waved at him from beside her tree. Percy smiled and waved back before turning back to the conversation at hand, but it was too late for that. The little girl, Annabeth was gone. He looked around and seen her running towards what he thought were the forges. He sighed, and turned to Chiron.

"So where are the ca-ooph!" he was knocked to the ground by something hard and heavy. He groaned a little, and coughed at the dirt around him. He rubbed his eyes with the hand that wasn't held painfully under a crushing weight.

"Sorry." He heard an embarrassed masculine voice say and he could hear people laughing around him. He coughed a few more times and sat up as the weight was lifted off of him.

"S'okay." Percy said thickly and was pulled to his feet by a warm hand. He looked up and saw a boy…no… guy that was too old to be called a boy, and too young to be called a man. He had sandy blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and only slightly tanned skin. He was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jean cutoffs with mountain climbing shoes. He was about two inches taller than Percy, and slightly more built, though he doubted that would make a difference I anything. He laughed at his own thought, then at himself for being knocked over.

"Really, sorry about that." He said, blushing slightly, and Percy heard the same voice that had apologized before. The guy smiled sheepishly ad held out a hand in front of him.

"I'm Luke by the way. Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes." He said nervously, obviously still embarrassed. Percy smiled and took his hand, shaking it reassuringly.

"I'm Percy Jackson….as of right now, I'm undetermined."

AN: So, this was my first lemon, I don't know, but I thought it was good, lol. And sorry about the short part with Luke…I didn't want to make the chapter TOO long ^-^

Sorry about the fact that this story is slash…I've gotten some complaints, but I understand. The plot for this story would be ass-kicking without the slash too, but that's what it is, so sorry. Really, sorry, I hate disappointing people.

**~REVIEW~**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven: Earning Hate and Guilt After a LONG ASS break.**

**!WARNING! Disappointing author, and also sweet gay love. Haters can kick my ass if they like, but just for tHess couple upcoming chapters, while I redeem myself. **

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO**

"I'm getting really sick of this, Laelaps." Percy found himself pouting. "Having to sleep in a room with thirty other campers...not getting to show off my parentage proudly." The two-headed greyhound whined softly in agreement and sat lied his heads down on Percy's lap. The two sat together on an uprising of rock not too far from shore, and in Percy's opinion, it was one of the best days since arriving. The sun was blue sky was absolutely gorgeous, and the sea was cool and smelling of home.

Having already called his respective mothers and fathers, and now sitting with Laelaps, enjoying the mix of cool and warm...it was really relaxing.

He'd snuck away from dinner about an hour ago, and as far as he knew, he didn't have anything required to do for the rest of the day. For the past week since he'd been there, he hadn't really done much, in his opinion. He had a schedule that worked for him and also for his strengths. Since he'd grown up with archery and swordsplay, and also with potion making and first-aid, those classes had pretty much been taken care of. But, he took them all the same, in hopes of improving his skills, and also in hopes he didn't appear to have any special abilities.

He found he rather liked the Stoll brothers and their trickster ways, as well as the master swordsmith and mechanic, Charles Beckendorf, the Head of Cabin 9. Being a son Hephaestus, he could pretty much create anything with his hands and a few scraps of metal, which impressed and fascinated Percy to no end. Annabeth, the younger girl from Athena, also continued to surprise him with knowledge unusual for a girl of her age, not that Percy would ever admit this. He had no doubt that her and her architect slash strategic ways could design monuments and inventions to last a thousand years.

"Woof." Laelaps barked to gain his attention in that echo-y way of his and Percy smiled, nuzzling the dogs heads affectionately.

"Wanna play water frisbee now?" Percy asked. "I'm not sure how much longer I have until someone comes looking, not to flatter myself." Laelaps barked something that might've been a laugh and eagerly hopped off his master, diving into the surrounding water. Percy grabbed the frisbee he'd brought along from a the rock next to him and dove in also, using his power over the sea to propell himself upward into the air, tossing the frisbee straight over Laelaps' heads.

The greyhound quickly used his speedy abilities to gain on the flying disk and snatch it out of the air before it could even make contact with the awaiting water below. With a victorious growl, the dog swung its body around, powerfully sending the disk flying a good ten feet over Percy's outstretched hands.

The game went on like this for a good fifteen minutes, with each of them trying to out-swim and outdo the other's tosses. The waves had even started to pick up the further they went out. It was only when Laelaps and his animal instincts sensed someone approaching from the shore that the disk stopped flying.

"Good game, boy." Percy said breathlessly, beginning to swim towards the beach. "I'm probably gonna have to go back now." He scowled but laughed when his friend came over to lick his face. "Love you too."

With that, the greyhound dived under the water, out of sight, but Percy could _feel_ him move through the vast water, and felt it when his friend shadow-traveled away. Percy reached hearing distance just as Luke, the Head of the Hermes Cabin began to call him back to shore. That feeling he got every time he seen Luke Castallen Once again settled somewhere in his stomach. He'd yet to decide exactly what it was yet. Guilt? He HAD seen one of the boys's most personal and tragic moments in his life. Though it was many years ago, Percy could still see his dream clearly, could still picture the shaken looks on the teens' faces...

He shook himself away from the bad memory, instead focusing on how very healthy and happy Luke seemed to be in that moment. It worked. The uneasiness in his gut lessened a little.

"Hey." Percy greeted, smiling sheepishly as he reached the shore.

"Hey." Luke smiled. "What are you doing out there, Jackson?"

"Am I in trouble?" Percy grinned sheepishly. "I didn't think I had anything else to do today. I just lost track of time."

"Remember Wednesday? I thought we were gonna hit the arena for a while." Luke plopped down on the sand next to Percy with a sly grin. "I was going to make an example of you."

"Shut up, Castellan." Percy smiled, looking out into the sea. "I could take you any day."

"Speaking of which, are you ever going to stop chickening out and actually pick up a sword?" Luke laughed. "You have me on the edge of my seat wondering about your skills, or if you even have any." He teased and found himself eyeing the younger teen as he pulled a towel from a backpack and began rubbing down his hair. "You sure make it seem like you do. Hey, where do you come from anyway?"

"California." Percy lied quickly, earning a raised brow. "What? You guys get people from Cali, don't you?" Percy cracked open a can of Coke from his bag and offered a second to his friend.

"Well, just a couple so far...thanks." Luke seemed to study him for a few seconds, accepting the can without a second thought. "You don't look like you're from Cali."

"Then where do I look like I'm from?" Percy asked, smiling slightly.

"I don't know...Alaska, maybe?" Luke chuckled and It was Percy's turn to give a questioning look. "Dude, Cali's like a sunny state, right? I'm way more tan than you are."

"Contrary to popular belief, it's no really sunnier than any other state." Percy shrugged. "I was born and raised there." True enough.

"I see." Luke had a thoughtful look about his face before he asked yet another question. Well, it wasn't like they'd had time to just talk. All week, both of them had had a pretty busy schedule, and it wasn't like they were best friends or anything. Percy actually found Luke very easy to be around. "What's your story, Percy? Half-bloods just don't show up here on their own, especially not at the age of fifteen. Most would've been killed by monsters without the protection of camp or proper training. How is it you're still ALIVE?"

"Well..." Percy refused to make eye contact. "My mom died when I was six. I had an alcoholic and really abusive stepdad..and he beat her to death. After that I ran away and never looked back. My mom never told me who my dad was." Well this _was_ the truth...

"I'm so sorry Percy." Luke suddenly looked very uncomfortable, after a moment of silence, and kind of sick. "That's horrible...and disgusting. What ever happened to him?"

"Oh..." Percy gave a very uncomfortable smile, taking a long drink of his soda. "I never found out. I assume he went to prison or something, but I don't know for sure."

"What about after that? You still haven't told me where you've been. Did you ever find out about your dad?"

"Well...mom never got a chance to tell me about my real dad." Percy struggled to reply, finding a smooth stone in the sand he was absently running his fingers through. "And I'm not sure I'm comfortable telling you about that yet, Luke. I'm not sure I'm ready to tell anyone yet." He offered a small smile. "But when I am, I'll make a note to tell you first, kay?"

"Okay." Luke clapped a hand in his shoulder, though he had a clearly puzzled look on his face. "Sorry to make you think about it." He gave something that was probably supposed to be a smile, but came out more as a grimace.

"It's alright. I've never been good at avoiding things...and what's the point in avoiding, right?" Percy asked, taking another long drink. "It doesn't bother me to talk about all that much. It's just that I'm supposed to keep low until the time is right..."

"Right for what?"

"You'll see when that time comes." Percy smiled, finishing his can of Coke.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO**

"I can't believe we're not allowed to have cellphone's." Percy grumbled. "Not that I would use it anyway.." He was pretty sure 'Verizon Wireless' didn't cover the Underworld.

"Monsters would be all over you, that's why." Asher's grin was bright in the fading light. "Besides, you have much cooler means of communication." Percy ran his fingers absently over the small silver mirror.

"I know, but really, I can't exactly whip out my enchanted mirror and start talking to my reflection in the mortal public." Percy grinned. "Something tells me people would notice."

"Enchanted mirror? What is this, Snow White? I have no problem imagining you doing that." The familiar masculine laugh was comforting after days of not hearing it. "Hey, speaking of fairy tales, maybe after I finish my London runs, I can come see you."

"Maybe, I hope so." The son of Hades found himself pouting. "I'll have to clear it with Chiron and Dionysus first. They monitor, like, everything. Especially if it concerns the magical barriers." He grimaced. "I know it's necessary, but it still sucks."

"Barriers? To keep the monsters out?" Ash wondered. "I wonder if I'm allowed in?"

"You're not a monster." Percy rolled his eyes and then smiled. "More like an angel."

"I'm blushing over here, Perce." The other chuckled. "I'm still not human...or, half human. I don't know...what am I again?" Percy laughed.

"An angel."

"I wish." Ash smiled sweetly. "Then I could have my own wings. You would ever get rid of me. I'd follow you anywhere."

"Good, because I wouldn't let you GO anywhere." Percy missed him so much. "I miss you." He said, voicing his thoughts. "I wish you could just use those wings all the time."

"Me too baby." Ash's head turned abruptly. "Future couple spotted." He made a show of raising his white bow and plucking a peculiar arrow from his quiver. "I gotta go, sweetheart, before I mess this up. I'll call you later, yeah?"

"Okay." Percy agreed. "Love you Ash."

"Love you too, death prince." Ash grinned and blew a kiss before the tiny 'screen' went blank, and Percy slipped it into his pants pocket.

"Dude!" Percy exclaimed suddenly to no one in particular, making a face and picking up a filthy soda can.

"I thought pollution was illegal here." Scowling, he shoved the can in his backpack -which he always carried around- and groaned at the thought of having to clean the bag out later. He sighed and began roaming further into the forest behind his cabin to look for more trash.

Not surprisingly so, he didn't find much more garbage. Only a few papers and wrappers here and there, and the tree nymphs showed their gratitude by peeking out of their respective trees and giving him stray kisses on the cheeks.

Percy couldn't help but blush, but he also felt really good at that moment, but also kind of scared too. The whole scene of everything reminded him of the days when the tree nymphs were the only beings that had cared for him. Now, fifteen and fairly grown up and less defenseless, he doubted they would care as much. After all, those tree spirits had been in California..

All in all, he was feeling very sentimental. Laelaps had dropped by earlier. He'd just gotten off the 'phone' with Ash. His surroundings brought him back to nine years ago. He missed his mom...all of his 'mom's. He missed his dad, and offhandedly wondered what the god of death was up to at that moment.

Leaning against a tree, Percy glanced over at the sunset, just barely visible through the undergrowth. His eye caught something that looked suspiciously like a rope woven from vegetation, and out of curiosity, he tugged on it. Not shockingly, the rope came loose, and Percy found very quickly it was more significant than it originally appeared to be...when a satyr fell from somewhere above him, hooves flailing.

"Ahhhh!" The half-human, half-goat crashed to the ground next to Percy, but also managed to knock him over in the process. Percy fell backwards -thankfully, into a patch of tall, soft grass- and huffed as he hit the ground. He heard another groan echo his and sat up, shaking a few stray leaves from his hair.

"Sorry." Percy apologized, immediately, as he caught his first sight at the nature sprite. The boy, who looked to be about his age, with shaggy dark curls, and eyes to match looked up at him as well, though he still lied on the ground. His skin was fair, even with the case of acne and excess hair, and he looked up at Percy with sort of a miffed look. He found this odd, that the boy looked like any other teen he passed in the streets...but what had he expected?

This was the first satyr he'd actually seen in person.

"S'okay." His voice fit his look, surprisingly. Not too deep or light, with a meekness to him. "I shouldn't have been sleeping up there."

"Oh." Percy came to a realization, as he glanced up that he'd actually pulled down the guy's makeshift bed for the night. "Oh." He said sheepishly. "Sorry about that, really...can I do anything to fix it?" He asked, picking up a rope, but feeling guilt heavy in his chest as it fell apart at his touch.

"It's okay, really." The boy repeated. "I wasn't sleeping very well anyway. That was the third time I fell off tonight." His smile was half-hearted.

"Oh..." Not knowing what else to say, Percy picked up the plastic bottle and papers he'd dropped and then held out a hand. "I'm Percy."

"Percy." The satyrs mouth lifted in what might've been a smile, and he grasped Percy's hand, but wrinkled up his nose as he shook it, as though he smelled something bad. "Uh, hi. I'm Grover."

"Cool." Percy smiled, suppressing an odd look, and shoved the garbage into his backpack.

"What's that?" Grover asked, brushing some dirt off his shoulder.

"Oh, just the garbage I've been picking up." Percy rolled his eyes. "Apparently it's too much to ask of the campers to clean up after themselves." He didn't miss the appraising look from the other teen, and blushed. He must've sounded like a dork. "It just gets me, you know? I mean, I wouldn't want anyone throwing their trash on ME or MY home." The satyr smiled.

"I think we're going to get along just fine."

**XOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO**

After getting acquainted with his new friend, and heading back to the Hermes cabin, Percy was surprised to find a note inside his sleeping bag, attached to the fabric with an odd looking tool. It was an inky black, and appeared to be made of glass, with one endowing smooth and the other end sharp as a pin. The note was standard yellow with red lines, and a small paragraph in the center.

_Percy,_

_Zeus has called a meeting tomorrow and requested that we be there. It must be something either very important or very bed...I'm assuming both since he actually called us in. Feel free to dress down. I'll send someone to pick you up tomorrow around noon, and it's already covered with the wine god. Goodnight. _

_-H. _

AN: OMG guys, your gonna seriously hate me. I know, I know, it's been too long, but you'll be happy to know I am continuing this...even though the plot is seriously messed up now. Also, sorry for any mistakes.

Why did I even start this? I mean, I love it and all, but MAN this chapter sucked to write. It went so slow...I bet it's only like two-thousand words or something, if I even made it that far, damnit. But don't worry, the next chapter will be better, and hopefully won't take nearly two years to get posted.

Don't I at least deserve a review? (No)


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